# BBA remove all plants question



## isonychia (Nov 19, 2013)

I am currently battling BBA.

I was at the point of introducing pressurized CO2 into my tank, but now I don't know if I should start that yet.

Here's my question.

If I was to remove all the plants from my tank (not a lot of plants and it's a small 17 gal) and replant new plants, start with CO2 etc does the BBA still exist in the substrate and filter?

In other words is my tank seeded with BBA and will always carry it until I balance out the current problem and create an environment unsuitable for it?

I guess I'm wondering if removing all my stargrass will help or should I just leave the plants, add my CO2 system and battle the BBA on the existing plants.

One note. I am not sure how I can remove the BBA as the base of the stargrass is what is mostly effected by it. If I trim the stargrass all I end up doing it leaving the base of the plant in the substrate, thus causing more mulm. I assume it will not grow back with just the base entact.

iso


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

You will not get rid of algae by sterilizing things, or pruning the plants. 

What you are doing is reducing the mass of algae in the tank. This is good. 
Then you treat to kill the remaining algae. 
Then you improve conditions so the plants can grow better, and out-compete the algae (or whatever they are doing that slows the algae growth)

If you cannot dig out the roots, then do not prune so hard. Perhaps trim it back halfway, or whatever will allow it to grow back nicely. 
Replant the tops and get some of them growing, too, so that when it is time to redo the whole tank (including digging out the old plants) you will have some young, healthy plants to start with.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

+1 to Diana

BBA will come back unless the underlying cause is solved. CO2 is also not a surefire fix for BBA - this is a myth that people too readily believe IMO. BBA can also run rampant in high tech tanks. If you have too much light and your plants are not growing fast enough to out-compete the algae then BBA will prevail. CO2 just helps the second part of that statement but it very much depends on other factors as well (plant mass, types of plants, etc)

Post pics of the whole tank, particularly bad sections, etc and it will be easier to give individualized advice. If you are totally buried in the stuff then starting over isn't a bad idea... I lost a battle to BBA and after starting over have been successful thus far. Other situations are much more manageable. Right now my tank is like 99.9% algae free and BBA is the ONLY algae that still shows up. Still get little tufts on some of my rocks but that's about it. IMO it is the most difficult algae to battle / avoid altogether. I have beaten just about every other kind of algae but a BBA-free tank is basically a pipe dream at this point lol


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## isonychia (Nov 19, 2013)

Thanks guys.

So far in my planted tank learning curve, here is the algae I have seen,
BBA
Green Hair Algae
Diatoms
Green spot and green dust algae.

Most have been controlled or eradicated. At the current stage of my tank I am now left with BBA.

What hurts the most with these algaes is they end up choking out my plants and or I need to prune so much off I then end up with low plant mass and the problem escalates.

I was hoping I could introduce CO2 and at the same time order a lot of plants and give myself the best chance possible at the start with a high plant mass and healthy growth.

Now I have to start over as the time it will take to order new plants will be too long and by that time the current stargrass I have will be overrun with BBA.

So I will try and get a new plant list going and order some asap.

Per the starting over idea, can I do that by removing the plants and the roots, vacuuming the gravel real well and re-introduce new plants? OR does starting over mean losing my tank cycle by cleaning out the filter and rinsing the ec-complete?

iso



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## algaewar (Sep 15, 2015)

Hey bud, like klibs stated BBA is everyone's absolute worst enemy. My friend had a 225 gal tank, high light, he doses EI, was supposed to go pressurized CO2 but never had the time to set it up. This guy hasn't done a water change on that tank for around 6 months. Every possible algae you can think of was in that tank, I mean every kind, to a point where all the "plants" or what was left of them were smothered in algae. I thought this would be a great opportunity to experiment with CO2 and see which algae it would get rid of. Anyways after one 50% water change and around 40-50ppm of constant CO2 day and night for little over a month all algae was gone except for BBA... BBA remained and grew, CO2 did not effect it at all. 

Now can BBA be transferred? This is my experience: I got some Moss from my buddy's 225 prior to the CO2 setup. The Moss had all sorts of algae growing on it, within a month of introducing the Moss in my tank(Co2 tank) all algae disappeared except the BBA. Since introducing the Moss my entire tank has BBA. Hydrogen Peroxide kills BBA but it also kills dwarf baby tears and Moss. Good luck and please keep us posted how your tank is doing.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

Bottom line is that BBA will attack anything that IS NOT HEALTHY if you give it the light and nutrients to thrive. In my tank I do not have a spec of BBA on anything except a stone or two and my intake pipes. These things can be treated and scraped off occasionally. Point is that BBA will only attack plants if they are unhealthy or you just have way too much light. When things are in balance plants are the last place that BBA shows up.

Like Tom Barr says... focus on growing extremely healthy plants and your life will be easier. Healthy, growing, plants repel BBA like the plague. Plants that are not so healthy attract it like magnets.

Because of this fact when you let BBA overcome plants and do not take care of the issue it will destroy your tank. It will suffocate plants that are already not doing great and add to the problem of having a lack of healthy growing plants. Just keeps going downhill from there...


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

The bottom of the stargrass is where the worst of the BBA is? Pull and discard the bottoms of the stems and replant the healthy top growth. The leaves are dying and make great substrate for algae, get rid of that substrate! I don't know of any stem plant where you leave the stem in forever. Amano trims stems several times then pulls and discards the bottoms. Dutch tank keepers pull, trim bottoms and replant the pretty tops every time the grouping needs to be pruned. 

I've put plants with algae in my tank and the algae didn't grow, sometimes your particular set up doesn't foster particular algae. My tank doesn't get clado or staghorn for instance and those can be terrible plagues in other tanks but I do get GSA, GDA and BBA.

I'd pull up the stargrass and replant the healthy tops, get some fast growing plants to add to the tank like pennywort, hornwort or wisteria and get some Seachem Excel to spot dose on the hardscape/hardware where you cannot scrub it off. I'd go over the surface of the substrate to get debris off the surface. I'd rinse your filter media in some tank water so filter flow is at it's best. Don't take your tank down or throw away the healthy part of plants! A reset will just cause some other algae to start a plague. New tanks generally get diatoms and GDA at the start for instance.


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## isonychia (Nov 19, 2013)

Thanks Guys.

I have removed all the stargrass (only plants left IN the tank, all others plants are in holding tanks) and tried to salvage the healthy tops. Not sure if I will replant them as there is very little tops left that were not affected by BBA.

I vacuumed the substrate real well and cleaned the glass. (I had removed all the rocks a while ago and boiled them)

I have yet to clean the filter.

I have some new plants on the way. Once they all come in I will replant, add the CO2 and try and put the scape back the way I had it.

I had a nice looking hard scape going in the beginning with fissidens fontanus tied to the rocks etc (a planned layout with other plants) but the algae slowly caused the layout to breakdown as I had to constantly remove plants with algae, remove the rocks with BBA etc.

We will see what happens going forward. I currently have 3 big bunches of anacharis and a big piece of established driftwood with moss in the tank for the fish to have some cover.

iso


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Could have missed it, but haven't seen a word of what light you have.
A likely scenario... 
"and will always carry it until I balance out the current problem and create an environment unsuitable for it?"
Klibs suggested what I think is probable...that too many cling to CO2 to deal/w this.
And that plant choices contribute as well. But since all who have contributed in this thread have or seem to have had BBA then I feel less qualified to do so.
But going to that CO2 issue...those high tech tanks which still get the BBA...how many times do we see those who believe that a PAR of over 100 is good and that you can just compensate by raising the CO2? When Tom Barr does outrageous reds/plants in 70PAR.
The second half of this is that once established(because of whatever) it's much harder
to rid the tank than it is to stop it from beginning. My conclusion being that just adding more CO2 will only work if the light is correct to begin/w.
That was the thinking behind my lead in question/statement.


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## isonychia (Nov 19, 2013)

Raymond, here is the lighting info and other specs for my tank.

When I first started a planted tank I purchased a light that was way to bright and I ended up with algae.
So I switched and bought the dimmable Current SAT + Pro.

• TANK: 17.1 gallon Mr Aqua.

• DIMENSIONS: 23.6" x 11.8" x 14.2" 

• LIGHTING: 12" Current Sat + Pro light
Photo period: I believe 7 hours. 2pm-9pm. I tried to have it come on so I can see the tank with the lights on when I come home from work, thus the late ON time.
At full capacity (100 strength on the dimming feature) it is listed at 100 par.
I have the dimming feature turned down to about 35-38 par.
Light is about 11" from the substrate.

• DOSING: EI dosing once a week. 1/4 tsp K2SO4, 1/8 tsp KH2PO4. My Nitrates are always high so I do not dose KNO3. (I assume I have all this correct, I followed a members suggestion. Maybe I read his info incorrectly, but that is what I deduced from it per the dosing specs) I never noticed any uptake of my nitrates, they always hovered between 40-60ppm. I cant remember what the goal PPM for phosphates is supposed to be when I dose. i wrote it down and was always within the limits outlined by the member. (very helpful person)

• FILTER: Marineland Magnum 250 or 350 external.

• POWERHEAD: Hydor Nano 250

• HEATER: External

• 50 % water changes every 2 weeks. I was doing 50% per week when I was battling diatoms and green hair algae and green dust algae.

General parameters.
• Ammonia: 0
• Nitrites: 0
• Nitrates: 40-60ppm
• Phosphates: (have not tested in a while since stripping tank due to BBA) Past tests showed 1-2ppm
• KH: 250ppm (14dkh)
• GH: 430ppm (24 dkh)
• PH: 7.6
• Tank Temp: 75-80 F

I think my main problem is never having enough plant bio load.
Once I realized that was an important factor no matter if you dose CO2 or not, it was too late and I was already fighting hair algae, BBA etc.
Because I had to remove plants as they became infected, it just caused the problem to escalate because I was removing plant mass, even though it was unhealthy. By the time I went and bought anacharis, frogbit etc it was still too late. What started the downfall in the newly setup tank was the diatoms. I knew I had to wait for them to clear but they were on my plants as well so I started removing plants, cleaning them, putting them back, discarding the bad ones etc.

iso


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