# The worst type of Algae



## Positron (Jul 22, 2013)

I'm curious as to what everyone's nemesis is when it comes to algae. It doesn't have to be the type of algae that is most prevalent in your tank. Algae can upset people for a many reasons. Perhaps there is no GSA in your tank but on a few leaves on anubias and it won't go away. 

Anyway I hate BBA. It's horrid and needs to never have evolved.


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## jeffpersonn (Feb 9, 2014)

Bba is my forever enemy ==

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## Aqualady (Jan 14, 2013)

Positron said:


> I'm curious as to what everyone's nemesis is when it comes to algae. It doesn't have to be the type of algae that is most prevalent in your tank. Algae can upset people for a many reasons. Perhaps there is no GSA in your tank but on a few leaves on anubias and it won't go away.
> 
> Anyway I hate BBA. It's horrid and needs to never have evolved.





jeffpersonn said:


> Bba is my forever enemy ==
> 
> Sent from my HTC Desire 601 using Tapatalk



+1....bba


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## chibikaie (Aug 2, 2012)

I'm currently battling some kind of hair/thread algae, but the one I hate most is green spot. I couldn't get it off the glass, so I couldn't see into the tank, and thus my algae problems just continued to snowball as I wasn't even aware of some of them until they got out of hand. I've reset tanks several times, but this was the only time I was really aggravated by it.


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## Monster Fish (Mar 15, 2011)

BBA and staghorn are easily dealt with in my experience. The one I do hate the most though is spirogyra since it gets tangled in everything.


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## Edub (Mar 23, 2011)

Clado. I'll take everything else all at once if I never have to deal with clado again.


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## EntoCraig (Jun 7, 2010)

edub said:


> clado. I'll take everything else all at once if i never have to deal with clado again.


agreed...


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## jmf3460 (Aug 21, 2013)

the one I hate is BGA, mainly because the smell, it triggers my gag reflex so every time I clean out bga, I wind up puking or almost puking


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## EntoCraig (Jun 7, 2010)

jmf3460 said:


> the one I hate is BGA, mainly because the smell, it triggers my gag reflex so every time I clean out bga, I wind up puking or almost puking


Clado is a BGA correct?

And yeah the smell is awful... Like rotting lawn clippings and pee.


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## jmf3460 (Aug 21, 2013)

EntoCraig said:


> Like rotting lawn clippings and pee.


it is such a weird smell to me, like not even a terrible smell, oddly musty and earthy, still it triggers my gag for some reason. I can handle horse/cow manure, dog poo, burnt hair anything else just cant stomach the BGA


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## MERSF559 (Oct 18, 2013)

I've been having a few issues with BBA. Idid a spot treatment with excel and it cleared all of it. But I started slowly seeing it come back on my hard scape. Damn algae! Lol


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

:icon_evilSpirogyra:icon_evil - so hard to get rid of. I can pull it to keep it under control, but it is always there waiting to explode when you go away for a week.


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## Mizuhuman (Mar 16, 2013)

EntoCraig said:


> Clado is a BGA correct?
> 
> Edit: Yup it is... And yeah the smell is awful... Like rotting lawn clippings and pee.


huh? I believe Clado and BGA are different algae. 

Anyways, my vote goes to cladophora algae. In my opinion, its worst than bba. I can manage bba to a certain extent but clado is just something else.


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## EntoCraig (Jun 7, 2010)

Mizuhuman said:


> huh? I believe Clado and BGA are different algae.
> 
> Anyways, my vote goes to cladophora algae. In my opinion, its worst than bba. I can manage bba to a certain extent but clado is just something else.


I think you are correct, my mistake.


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## jmf3460 (Aug 21, 2013)

BGA is cyanobacteria


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## EntoCraig (Jun 7, 2010)

jmf3460 said:


> BGA is cyanobacteria


Oh that's right! I got confused... I had a cyanobacteria infestation in one of my vivariums and I thought it was clado for the longest time... 

We hates it! (Gollum voice)


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## Monster Fish (Mar 15, 2011)

jmhk said:


> :icon_evilSpirogyra:icon_evil - so hard to get rid of. I can pull it to keep it under control, but it is always there waiting to explode when you go away for a week.


I know that feel. It just shrugs off H2O2 and Excel overdosing. The only way I've been able to kill it is with Algaefix. It kinda sucks though in that it kills shrimp.


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## UDGags (Sep 13, 2009)

BBA for me BUT I have yet to experience clado.

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## neilshieh (Sep 6, 2010)

wheres the option for all? :icon_evil


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## twentypoundtabby (Dec 7, 2013)

Is Green Dust algae that algae that just settles on things and doesn't stick to anything? 
If so, then I have it in one tank and don't mind it. I feed it to my shrimp and they love it.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

For me diatom, with black beard and hair algae vying for a close second on the list of hatred.


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## puopg (Sep 16, 2012)

BBA can be dealt with and spreads slowly as long as ur co2 isnt crazy outta whack. Hard to completely eradicate, but im ok with a few tufts every now and then. But green hair algae. That crap thrives in good conditions. So a PITA to remove.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

puopg said:


> BBA can be dealt with and spreads slowly as long as ur co2 isnt crazy outta whack. Hard to completely eradicate, but im ok with a few tufts every now and then. But green hair algae. That crap thrives in good conditions. So a PITA to remove.


My co2 is excel, and i seem to have bba growing on all the jungle val babies I have :/ hair algae likes to grow on driftwood and mosses for me. Diatoms.. just everywhere, rock, glass, more glass.. did i mention they get all over the glass?


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## Whiskey (Feb 15, 2005)

I've got to go with Green Dust. I've struggled with it for about 12 years now, and though it's easy to clean off it always eventually makes me scratch my tank 

Whiskey


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## puopg (Sep 16, 2012)

Whiskey said:


> I've got to go with Green Dust. I've struggled with it for about 12 years now, and though it's easy to clean off it always eventually makes me scratch my tank
> 
> Whiskey


To easily remove it from glass, i use a razer blade and always go top to bottom, not side to side. Never once have I scratched my tank. Just be careful about it.


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## Whiskey (Feb 15, 2005)

puopg said:


> To easily remove it from glass, i use a razer blade and always go top to bottom, not side to side. Never once have I scratched my tank. Just be careful about it.


Great tip! But when I have to scrape it off 3 times a week, on a 75G tank I eventually get lazy and use the magfloat.

And that's when the trouble starts,...

Whiskey


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

For me, it is self inflicted algae problem's which I suffered from for a couple year's while learning how to grow plant's and keep algae at bay.
Too much light was at the root of my problem's (less is somtimes better), with no CO2 and fear of fertz (ie)phosphates,nitrogen,potassium.


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## pantherspawn (Dec 21, 2011)

Bba always rears it's ugly head at least once per year. Initially I thought it was going to be the death of me, but since then I've learned how to deal with it when it blooms. Though it's still no fun to say the least. 

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## Chulios66 (Jan 3, 2013)

Brown algae(diatoms) is my personal worst. I have never experienced or heard of any other kind of algae except green and brown algae has taken the oxygen from many of my tanks. I am still battling it to this day. I have wanted to culture green algae for some plecos, but it hasn't happened in m past tests.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

Black Beard is hard to defeat for me now days


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## jevan23 (Mar 20, 2008)

Edub said:


> Clado. I'll take everything else all at once if I never have to deal with clado again.


+1, worst algae ever


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## kirk (Apr 4, 2011)

im fortunate enough to have only dealt w/ hair algae for the most part thus far.

How about a hair algae wig! hahaha


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## Tanman19az (May 14, 2011)

Green Hair algae is the worst for me. So far, it's beaten me twice. When I come back for a third, I'll be prepared with a better Co2 reg and canister


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

Green dust/spot/hair/thread/water, and probably spirogyra, all eliminated or brought to a standstill by a mere 1/6mL per 10G of Algaefix daily, which is a safer application than the label recommendations. Although dust/spot/water can typically be managed by good tank conditions, and hair/thread/spiro completely avoided by simply not letting it into a tank in the first place.

Diatoms and BGA also managed by good tank conditions.

Clado's definitely evil, but uncommon. Had it only once, noticed and removed it before it could spread. Should I ever have a true outbreak I think the One-Two Punch might have a fighting chance against it, based on some damage I caused to Marimo balls with it.

That leaves BBA and staghorn. Both of which are _usually_ controlled by good tank conditions, or killed with various chemicals; yet sometimes they will stubbornly defy all reasonable attempts at control.

BBA is also omnipresent, unlike staghorn. No surprise it's winning this poll! But as I've personally had more trouble with staghorn, it gets my vote.


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## Positron (Jul 22, 2013)

I forgot to mention Clado in the poll. I've never seen it in my aquarium so I simply forgot about it. 

Today I noticed some BGA starting on the lower leaves of my s. repens and starting at some of my flame moss tips. I've never used any chemical besides excel for BBA, but I went ahead and added a 1/2 dose of erythromycin today, and will add another half tomorrow. I don't want this stuff spreading.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

I'd say BBA is the worst for folks. 
I spent 3 years going through everything slow and step wise. 
Amano said it took him 10 years to figure out how to deal with it effectively.


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## Nikk (Oct 17, 2013)

BBA is the reason for every war and bad thing that has ever happened on this earth. When children are scared at night or when people are starving, you can blame BBA. BBA is the bane of my existence. I hate you, BBA.


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## samee (Oct 14, 2011)

I guess Im fortunate to say Ive never had bba. Ive had clado which was the worst. Had to tear down the tank. For the past year, Ive had gsa, which I think is the worst. Im going to be changing my ei recipe to see if that fixes the problem. I had blue green but popped a tab of erithro and prob solved, so bg is not a problem. Ive never had any other algae besides that. Except for diatoms but thats when my tank was new.


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