# Is this BBA or Staghorn and how do I get rid of it!??!



## crice8 (Aug 2, 2012)

I started EI dosing 2 weeks ago when I got my 40 gallon breeder back together after a time of neglect. It has pressurized co2 and a finnex fugeray 36" that is on about 10 hours a day. What is this algae and how can I get rid of it? Adjustment to my dosing? more co2?

Thank you,
Chase


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

The lower leaf in the first pic looks very much like the bba I have been dealing with in my tanks. In my 75g tank I found that 3 decent sized Siamese Algae Eaters (SAE) did a great job at removing most of it. If you go this route, do some research to make sure you are getting the correct fish. The Flying Fox and Chinese Algae Eaters do very little for BBA


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Looks like Cladophora to me. From too high of a light level.
I have two 10g tanks. Both had high light in them/w no CO2.
This got into one only of them leading me to believe that it needs to be imported into your tank. I do use Excel in the tank that had this Clado. But until I added Hydrogen Peroxide it didn't stop the Clado. I have always used 2x the regular doses of Excel. 2 ml for the 10g tank per day. No extra at water changes. 
Then for a while I directly dosed HP on it/w a syringe. Do not exceed 2 ml per gallon if you do that. 1.5 is better. But that's hard to do when it's up on something as opposed to
on the bottom. You can also dose it like Excel for about a week @ 1.5 ml per gallon.
Will kill Riccia F. however. You should turn off anything which makes current if you direct dose it, for about 30 min.
8 hrs would be better than 10.


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## PortalMasterRy (Sep 22, 2014)

Looks like staghorn and BBA. Make sure you are providing enough CO2. BBA will appear if the CO2 levels fluctuate too much. How are you injecting C02 in the tank? Diffuser? Reactor?


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## crice8 (Aug 2, 2012)

PortalMasterRy said:


> Looks like staghorn and BBA. Make sure you are providing enough CO2. BBA will appear if the CO2 levels fluctuate too much. How are you injecting C02 in the tank? Diffuser? Reactor?


I have the GLA atomic regulator and Atomic diffuser. I removed the stems and leaves that were affected by the algae. I will keep slowly increasing my co2 level in my tank. I increase it a little bit every few days. If my fish start gasping at the surface I cut it back a tiny bit and then continue to increase in a couple of days. The lights are on a timer and the co2 comes on about an hour before the lights do.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

I agree that you have something (probably clado?) and some BBA. 

IMO turn off all your flow for a half hour and spot treat it with some H2O2 to get a head start in fixing the issue.

I really don't buy that BBA is entirely due to CO2 like everyone says. People don't even try anymore - the instant they see BBA it's just "oh you need more CO2" and then problems persist. Sure it is probably the most common reason for it occuring but upping your CO2 is certainly not a surefire fix for BBA.

How much do you dose? 10 hours of light is quite a long photoperiod. Also consider that if all you have are those plants in there (crypts & water sprite / wisteria?) then they really do not need much light at all to stay healthy. Plants can only use so much CO2 and light... Just because you are blasting CO2 does not mean that your tank/plant mass can use up all that light. If you are dosing full EI then that is probably way too much for what you have going on there.

EDIT: Basically I completely agree with Raymond's post


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## crice8 (Aug 2, 2012)

I am currently dosing:
1/2 tsp KN03 T/TH/Sat
1/8 tsp KH2PO4 T/TH/Sat
1/8 tsp CSM +B(trace) M/W/F
3/4 tsp GH Booster once a week after WC

I just changed my photo period to one 8 hour period to see if that helps it out. Here is a picture of all of the plants that are in there. The S repens carpet has started off pretty good.
I also have a planted+ on my tank in addition to the fugeray so that is where the green algae is coming from. I am still adjusting the light period down for it.


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