# How does BBA spread?



## kroner19 (Mar 18, 2012)

Just looking for a little more insight into this monster I'm fighting. I have raised my CO2 levels to the max my fish can take and lowered my photo period to 8hrs. I thought this would do the trick coupled with my manual removal of the little clumps but still Im getting new growth of BBA. What am I doing wrong? Should I lower my photoperiod even more?


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## l8nite (Aug 29, 2012)

I just fought off a BBA invasion - it's still in my tank and growing, but I took care of the majority of it with heavy pruning of the affected leaves of my plants. 

I bleach-dipped the few plants I could get out easily and then took a pair of scissors to the rest. It hurts, but the plants will grow back.


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## l8nite (Aug 29, 2012)

Forgot to say, I also did as you did, increased CO2 as high as I felt safe and lowered photo period.


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## JoraaÑ (Jun 29, 2009)

Higher co2 and lowering Photoperiod wont do much for BBA. 8 hours is still a lot...Cut to 6 hours..Manually remove much you can...Add some SAE if you can find True sp. Clean filter/s thoroughly, Increase flow all over the tank. 

Further here

bleach-dipped as l8nite mentioned is not a good idea as it melts most of the plants. Go with H2O2 or Vinegar...is much safer.

Tho' pple say Vinegar increase the PH but it wont make any difference so far I can tell..Treat before you do large water change...Frequent water change 2-3X/week also helps to fight with most of the Algae.


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## Silenced (Aug 20, 2012)

*How I did*

If you have strong current, it will form around the plants where it is.
Double dose excel is one option you can think.
Dont waste time on manual WC over the time or maual labor to get rid of.
Consider other aquatic lives when applying excel on tank since result may vary by people.


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## tener (May 11, 2010)

try some red ramshorn snails,worked for me.


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## kroner19 (Mar 18, 2012)

im confused as two of your statements contradict each other. Joraan said to increase water flow while Silenced said that BBA will form on plants around strong current. I have a pretty strong circular flow in my tank. Its not incredibly strong, but i do have pretty good plant swaying in my tank. Should i cut back? Right now I have a full length spray bar up top rear, and then a power head on top right rear and another on bottom left front. Too much? They're both around 250-300 gph if i can remember correctly.

Also, no one really touched on how this stuff spreads? Is it spore based or does it just appear from deficiencies/excess? (I didn't read the link, if the answer is in there, as I'm just replying real quick but i will when i get a second)

For now, I will cut my photoperiod again down to 6. Im doing a water change tomorrow so I guess ill do a good pruning again and H2O2 dip all my plants. Pretty much all my plants are removable as they are in gravel so there is not much 'root grab' for me to deal with. 

Thanks for all your input thus far.


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## zackariah (Jan 17, 2013)

im new to planted aquariums and to the forum need a little help with your acronyms. what is BBA. Also what is SAE.i have some growth on my plants and driftwood not sure what to do either. I have a thread with pics its called What is this? If any one could take a look and give me a hand I would greatly appreciate it


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## Msheresy (Oct 3, 2012)

zackariah said:


> im new to planted aquariums and to the forum need a little help with your acronyms. what is BBA. Also what is SAE.i have some growth on my plants and driftwood not sure what to do either. I have a thread with pics its called What is this? If any one could take a look and give me a hand I would greatly appreciate it


Black beard algae 
Siamese algae eater

;-)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

Msheresy said:


> Black beard algae
> Siamese algae eater
> 
> ;-)
> ...


ONLY if its really hungry and u don't feed it anything else.. it will quickly learn fed food is much tastier


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## danielt (Dec 19, 2012)

My head aches from all this none sense I read on here 

There isn't a bit of good advice in this thread that hasn't been proven false by anyone with any little experience dealing with this algae. Tom Barr advised against water changes. As with any change you will bounce the CO2 level in the tank. Water changes against algae is in general a bad advice unless we're talking about green water or cyanobacteria.

BBA spreads by spores, UV will do nothing to it or its spread. It grows the same in high and low current. Reducing photoperiod is the worst advice, period. It will hurt all plants. Those are the ones that will do the battle. Get the plants growing and healthy and the algae will stop spreading or it will remain only on spraybars and gravel.

Regarding light, induce a noon time-out of a couple of hours. That's anything you should change about the light. I have a 10 hour photoperiod and that hasn't been changed, only the timeout at noon was introduced.

Lower kH as much as you can. Get some DI water or RO and get the kH down. Don't clean anything in the tank. Organic decomposition produces CO2 and this algae is not about cleanliness. I did a reset of my tank with all the plants taken out and deep gravel vacuuming and this algae returned with a vengeance. Soft slow growing plants are a good nesting place. Get them going well so the algae will not have where to get a foothold.

Marsilea Hirsuta and Althernantera were covered in this stuff mostly on damaged/old leaves. Dying Rotala Macrandra stems also got covered in it although fresh growth was not touched.

SAE or any vegetarian fish will hurt it if it's not going well. Otherwise it will do nothing to keep it in control as it grows fast. SAE will stop eating algae once it's a juvenile or it will scarcely snack on it. Don't ever rely on wildlife to take an algae out. They do a good job at keeping it down but that's all.

Set your CO2 level and stick to it. In my tank I notice the algae is not doing well when it changed color from black-purplish to a dark green and it starts to loose it's stickiness. If you are able to pull the entire clump off a surface then it's retreating.


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