# BBA algae treatment



## pitmindy (Aug 6, 2009)

HI, I have been battling BBA algae for over a year. It keeps getting worse. I have a 120 gallon heavily stocked community tank with clown loaches, glass catfish, neons and discus. My substrate is from aquariumplants.com black stuff. My plants were water sprite and dwarf sag. I recently spent over 4 hours during which I soaked all my equipment and rock, including my heaters in a 5 gal bucket with 946 ml of peroxide. I soaked my dwarf sag in a mix of about 500ml to the 5 gal. I soaked the water sprite in a much weaker solution and and then only put back into the tank the part that was almost entirely free of BBA. Since my dwarf sag is so heavily coated with BBA (although not the roots or the parts under the gravel surface) I am afraid of returning it to the tank until the algae dies so I put it in a bucket with clean water and I will see if the BBA dies before the plant dies. The BBA is also on the gravel so I syphoned a lot of the gravel which turned much of the BBA over and buried alot of it. I did clean my 2 Fluval 405 canisters with tank water so that I didn't risk killing the beneficial bacteria. I also reduced the lights and now have a 2 bulb HOT5 unit that I will run 8 hours a day. ( I used to have 5 bulbs on one side and 2 on the other side and run them for 12 hours) I also have a UV sterilyzer. I know there is still plenty of BBA in my tank on the gravel and in the water, but I greatly reduced it and hopefully without fertilizers or excessive light it will remain under ccontrol. I own a CO2 tank but I haven't been using it since I dont want to risk my fish. I also put an airstone in for a few days just to ensure the safety of my fish.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Once the leafs of a plant are infested with BBA you can't save those leafs. You have to remove them. Killing the BBA and removing the dead algae leaves a badly scarred leaf that can't survive. Big BBA infestations require major pruning, replacement of plants, cleaning, etc. followed by changing the conditions that led to the BBA in the first place.


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## pitmindy (Aug 6, 2009)

Thanks for your advice. I did take off all the parts of the Water Sprite that had BBA on it. I also cleaned all my equipment. However, I cant get it off the black gravel. There is just too much of it on the gravel. I do keep removing the pieces of gravel that are covered with BBA that they look furry. I haven't put any of my dwarf sag back into the tank yet. It is still soaking in the peroxide/water mix and it is still covered with BBA. I want to see if the BBA turns colors and dies before the entire plant dies from lack of light and too much peroxide in the water. I probably have a hundred dwarf sag plants soaking. Should I cut off the leaves with the BBA on them, and replant the dwarf sag plants with thick roots, even though by removing the leaves there will be almost nothing left of the plant? I am thinking I should throw the dwarf sag plants away and stick with watersprit and very low light until I get the BBA under control. Watersprite wont dies with low light, it just wont grow fast, but neither will the BBA in low light. Any further advice?


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## Mr. Appleton (Jul 1, 2011)

I had some BBA show up in my tank a few weeks ago when my CO2 ran out -- probably not as out of control as yours, but putting some nerites and otos in the tank seemed to help some. I'm not sure if they always eat BBA, but these guys from the LFS seemed hungry. The leaves that weren't completely infested actually got pretty clean over about a week and I just trimmed off the really nasty ones. Adding CO2 back seemed to make the problem more or less go away. Good luck!


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## Chipster55 (Nov 1, 2011)

Bump


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## NWA-Planted (Aug 27, 2011)

Spot treat with hydrogen peroxide or excel
And get whatever is out of wack in wack
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## Chipster55 (Nov 1, 2011)

I bumped this because I have a 55 shrimp tank with same problem. I can't use much of anything to attempt to kill it and its all over gravel. I have a high tech setup and C02 is what will take care of it but I'm already in a light green color on drop checker. I backed my lights off from 12 to 8 hours. I think this all started when I started filling with aged water. I noticed this BBA starting about a month after. I'm treating my 75 ( which is right next to it with algae fix and double dose of excel and everything has recovered nicely but doesn't seem to be affecting the BBA on gravel here either. I probably have 100 + cherrys in there and would be nearly impossible. The aged water has a heater and bubbles in it and there is something about that water I think started this issue. Th Amis in advance


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## Chipster55 (Nov 1, 2011)

I'd have to spot treat all the gravel and with shrimp 150+ I don't think the shrimp would survive the amount of excel I would have to use. As far as the source I'm still trying to pin it down I don't know why but it seems to relate to the aged water I just started using. Both tanks that had this out break started after the addition of the aged water. Both these tanks were well established with very little BBA.


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## Chipster55 (Nov 1, 2011)

Anyone?? Really concerned with all BBA on substrate


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## Mishmosh (Nov 27, 2003)

I like to dose high concentrations of excel for at least a couple of weeks. Gradually ramp the dosage up daily and the shrimp will tolerate it fine. Make sure water circulation in the tank is good. BBA really seems to florish where their is stagnant water.


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## Chipster55 (Nov 1, 2011)

NWA-Planted said:


> Spot treat with hydrogen peroxide or excel
> And get whatever is out of wack in wack
> Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


Ok thanks. Glad to know shrimp can handle excel. I've got about 3extra corella's I can use. Shrimp gonna think its a hurricane


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## Mishmosh (Nov 27, 2003)

Chipster55 said:


> Ok thanks. Glad to know shrimp can handle excel. I've got about 3extra corella's I can use. Shrimp gonna think its a hurricane


I do not know what is providing your water circulation in the 55 gallon but for a tank that size, I would have 2 good sized canisters going or one FX5.


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## fishfreak36 (Mar 3, 2013)

I had some bba not to long ago, I got rid of it by reducing photo period to 6 hours, overdosing excel, pruning the already affected leaves, upping co2 to over 30 ppm, and having some ottos in the tank helps as well because they will eat the dead bba but not while its alive. If none of that works try an algeacide such as tetra algae control it works well, another is api algaefix which I have heard it can work really well and it can also severely sicken and even kill fish so just be careful. hope this helps


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## Chipster55 (Nov 1, 2011)

fishfreak36 said:


> I had some bba not to long ago, I got rid of it by reducing photo period to 6 hours, overdosing excel, pruning the already affected leaves, upping co2 to over 30 ppm, and having some ottos in the tank helps as well because they will eat the dead bba but not while its alive. If none of that works try an algeacide such as tetra algae control it works well, another is api algaefix which I have heard it can work really well and it can also severely sicken and even kill fish so just be careful. hope this helps


Thanks for your info but this is a shrimp tank and the only thing I know I can use safely is excel. My problem is the BBA is all over substrate. As I said earlier, I really don't want to move the shrimp as there are 150+ in there. This really sucks because the water conditions were perfect, doing one 50% change a week ans water was crystal clear (which it still is). I don't understand why after using aged water for a couple water changes this crap appeared in all my tanks that I used it in. The others I got rid of it basically as you described above with lots of circulation. Has anyone else experienced this with aged water?? That's the million dollar question for me.


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## Chipster55 (Nov 1, 2011)

Mishmosh said:


> I do not know what is providing your water circulation in the 55 gallon but for a tank that size, I would have 2 good sized canisters going or one FX5.


I have a good size canister in the 55. I forget the size but its a cascade that is one size larger than needed


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## herns (May 6, 2008)

BBA is a sign of low co2.

Sent from HTC One device using Tapatalk2


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## assasin6547 (Feb 6, 2013)

herns said:


> BBA is a sign of low co2.
> 
> Sent from HTC One device using Tapatalk2


Could one possibly put in a chunk of dry ice in the afflicted area to temporarily stunt BBA growth, assuming you don't have live stock?


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## Beezledrop (Apr 7, 2013)

Recently I had/have an outbreak in my shrimp tank.The shrimp eat it albeit sparingly so it gave me room to experiment with some plants algea resistances.Of all my plants Rotala rotundifolia even in direct contact with the algea weeks later still had no algea growing on it.Turns out there was some root tabs that floated above the substrate.So far after removing these by hand the algea has subsided for the most part.(I left some for the shrimp to munch)


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## JonWF (Jan 9, 2013)

As of this morning the BBA is essetnailly gone form my tank. I attribute this to the Excel Flourish. I double dosed 1x and turned off the CO2 for a day or two. Turned my tank very cloudy. Three day slater i turned back on the CO2 and the tank cloudiness went away. Then about 5 days later I did a 50% water change with tap water. Now 3 days after that the BBA has evaporated. Excel did not affect the fish, but melted all my val within a day or two (except for some roots that seem to be alive) and crypts. Everything else is fine. I am happy. Good luck!!!


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