# BBA.. still, after many re-do's



## MaroMan (Jan 6, 2010)

I have been fighting BBA for years as well, it seems that when your parameters are on point it begins to die out and then spikes the ammonia because of the extra die off and then it comes back again... I have reason to believe it is because of high nitrates as I see it coming back nice and green when the nitrates get too high or extended periods without doing water changes. Consistent weekly maintenance has been cutting it out of my setup as of lately. It will help to spot treat with Hydrogen Peroxide. Once plants develop the BBA they will not dully recover, it is better to pull the leaves off and let the plant grow new leaves. good luck with the battle!

Previously before doing weekly 50% water changes, you can see it on the rocks in the middle









After 2-3 months of doing 50% weekly water changes, rocks have been shedding the BBA constantly but some has regrown...


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

also used to struggle with BBA...

first, need pics of your tank to truly assess what is going on here. pictures are worth many thousands of words in the 'help my aquarium' world.

I am unfamiliar with your lighting setup so i cannot judge what your light levels are... but from what I have seen BBA shows up when you have too much light and not enough plant growth. I have not seen any correlation between BBA and nutrients or CO2 like so many claim. for me it is simply this logic: proper levels of light + abundance of plant growth = minimal BBA & most other algae. again, need to see pics of how heavily planted your tank is / how bright your lights are / how bad the bba situation looks

also, maybe stop rescaping your tank every 2-3 months and let it become established / settle in... changing so many things so frequently is going to be cause some degree of imbalance in your tank. might be surprised at the results if you just let things balance themselves out for a bit. you may be giving up the battle too soon... how bad are these outbreaks? is it just a few tufts in some places (fixable) or are your plants caked in the stuff? again, pics help here

ultimately BBA should not grow on plants... period. if BBA is growing on your plants then the plants are not healthy or you have too much light. from what I have seen if your plants are healthy and growing properly then BBA will never grow on them. only hardscape if anything. there is a piece of wood high in my tank that gets some BBA on it but that is the only place it has the balls to grow in there. all plants from moss to fast growing stems get close to no BBA on them. maybe a tuft or two ends up on some moss every once in a while but it has no chance of causing a problem

it sounds like you have tried a lot of the right things and you understand what you may be doing right/wrong but your approach may be too gung-ho. rescaping multiple times, changing dosing frequently, changing light levels frequently, etc is just too much in an 8 month span. once your plants really grow in densely your tank will balance itself out and life will become easier. this takes at least a few months to really happen though... again, pics will help here


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## Bishop61 (Oct 18, 2014)

Try to grow the BBA... that usually works to kill anything in my tank!

My experience is actually in line with Klib's post.... stopped re-scaping and fine tuning to let the plants grow in, also added some more fast growing stem plants. Denser plant growth did the trick for me.


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## IntotheWRX (May 13, 2016)

freshestemo412 said:


> Ive re-did / re-scaped my tank 3 times so far. This current scape, I have started to notice BBA on the outside of my plants leaves, mostly Crypts and on some tops of my Ohko stone. I still dont understand what my imbalance is after all this time which has been over 8 months. Here is my tank setup:
> 
> 
> 20 long
> ...


i fought bba before and the best trick was to have the water stable. if you make big changes to your water to keep "fighting" the bba, it will only make it worse. the plants and water parameters needs about 2-3 weeks to stabilize. I would recommend doing a 50% water change once every 3 weeks at the MINIMUM. 

basically the algae adapts to changes in the water way faster than your plants. the plants takes some time (1-2weeks) to get comfortable with the water. If you make tweeks to your water every 2-4 days, the plants are trying to keep up, while the algae is super comfortable. Once you allow your water to stabilize for 2-3 weeks, the plants will switch gears into growing mode and they will beast compete against the algae.

you want to have a stable tank, not touching your co2 levels, not changing your light levels, not adding or taking out fertz or whatever for 2-3 weeks. once everyone gets comfortable and happy, the algae will be fought off. bba will slowly die away. my tank now has 0 bba, before it was BBA hairs all over my tank.


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## freshestemo412 (Aug 19, 2016)

IntotheWRX said:


> i fought bba before and the best trick was to have the water stable. if you make big changes to your water to keep "fighting" the bba, it will only make it worse. the plants and water parameters needs about 2-3 weeks to stabilize. I would recommend doing a 50% water change once every 3 weeks at the MINIMUM.
> 
> basically the algae adapts to changes in the water way faster than your plants. the plants takes some time (1-2weeks) to get comfortable with the water. If you make tweeks to your water every 2-4 days, the plants are trying to keep up, while the algae is super comfortable. Once you allow your water to stabilize for 2-3 weeks, the plants will switch gears into growing mode and they will beast compete against the algae.
> 
> you want to have a stable tank, not touching your co2 levels, not changing your light levels, not adding or taking out fertz or whatever for 2-3 weeks. once everyone gets comfortable and happy, the algae will be fought off. bba will slowly die away. my tank now has 0 bba, before it was BBA hairs all over my tank.



When you say keep the water stable.. 

I dose EI Sun-Fri. Should I just NOT do a water change and continue with the same schedule next week? Im thinking that it was mandatory to do the 50% water change every week because of the build up of nutrients. Im only hitting 10-20 ppm of nitrates by week ends.

I think your saying... "Just leave your tank alone for 2-3 weeks, continue to fertilize, but stop touching" lol. Correct me if Im wrong

Thanks!


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## herns (May 6, 2008)

freshestemo412 said:


> I still dont understand what my imbalance is after all this time which has been over 8 months.... Anything you guys/gals could suggest on what else to do/try?
> 
> Thanks a lot!


 check your bulb how old they are?


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## TINNGG (Mar 9, 2005)

I have it, mostly on inanimate objects which I'm ok with. I do 80% water changes weekly, and have to add nitrates. Not sure that's the issue. I just let the SAEs handle it - they keep it down to a point that you have to be looking for it to see it. At its worst, my driftwood had a coat of dark green "fur". Pretty, but not really what I was aiming for. Its never gotten on the plants.


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## freshestemo412 (Aug 19, 2016)

herns said:


> check your bulb how old they are?


 @herns no bulb. I have the Fluval Plant and Fresh 2.0 I currently after this weekend, only have it on for 5 hours now to see if anything improves.


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## onlycrimson (Sep 7, 2010)

One thing that helps to curb it's growth is to hit it with hydrogen peroxide with a 1mL syringe. Turn off all water movement and directly apply the h2o2 to the BBA and let it sit for 15 minutes before restarting your pumps. I would not exceed maybe 1ml per 2 gallons when doing this daily. It's just a short term cure but you can nip it in the bud so that the tank can stabilize. It will probably never be fully gone though.


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## IntotheWRX (May 13, 2016)

onlycrimson said:


> One thing that helps to curb it's growth is to hit it with hydrogen peroxide with a 1mL syringe. Turn off all water movement and directly apply the h2o2 to the BBA and let it sit for 15 minutes before restarting your pumps. I would not exceed maybe 1ml per 2 gallons when doing this daily. It's just a short term cure but you can nip it in the bud so that the tank can stabilize. It will probably never be fully gone though.


swirling hyrogen peroxide for 15 min in your tank works great. its like nuking your tank. do a good water change after that. results should show 2-4 days later. i thought i would never get rid of bba, but huge clumps of it on my rocks got either eatened by my shrimps, which i doubt, or the BBA just died off after like 3 months.


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## ipkiss (Aug 9, 2011)

freshestemo412 said:


> @herns no bulb. I have the Fluval Plant and Fresh 2.0 I currently after this weekend, only have it on for 5 hours now to see if anything improves.


This... is probably the best and most effective thing you can do. AND wait!! weeks even. 

Your light is very powerful for a 20G. If their site is right, Aqualife & Plant Performance LED | Aquarium Lighting | Fluval, and you have it turned to max brightness, you are running at close to 60 par at 18" 

If you can combine the less time along with less brightness on top of that, while just maintaining everything else, it'll probably do wonders. 

Furthermore, if you can do a programmed ramp up/down time, it'll probably be the best scenario. This way, you can have the light on at low intensity for the longer periods that you want for viewing without aggravating your algae growth, but only at the highest intensity for a short burst of 1-2 hours for the plant growth. There seems to be mention of a controller here: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/10-lighting/911306-fluval-plant-led-2-0-a-3.html#post9161057 , but the reviewer was less than thrilled. Also mentioned a DIY controller? Maybe something to look into.


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## freshestemo412 (Aug 19, 2016)

ipkiss said:


> This... is probably the best and most effective thing you can do. AND wait!! weeks even.
> 
> Your light is very powerful for a 20G. If their site is right, Aqualife & Plant Performance LED | Aquarium Lighting | Fluval, and you have it turned to max brightness, you are running at close to 60 par at 18"
> 
> ...


Correct.. Im just leaving it be. Im not touching anything, Im not moving stuff around, Im patiently playing the waiting game to see how it goes. If I still have it, Ill simply keep the time going, but I will just reduce the intensity a bit to see how that goes and just continue with that.

Thanks!


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## ed.junior (Feb 2, 2017)

I know you got a lot of feedback, and you might get crazy with that, so I will try to keep it short.

IME, BBA appears when you have some organic matter, not ideal co2 levels, and not a great growth on some plants.

So, short list of actions.

1. Increase CO2
Check co2 dissolution method. Increase water circulation. Trim the plants to keep biomass at bay, decrease competition and stimulate growth

2. Reduce organic matter
Vacuum the substrate to remove mulm and organic matter. Keep filters clean. Remove dead leaves and such.

3. Treat affected areas
Some bba spots, even on healthy tanks, will not go away. They do not grow anymore, but you have to remove them manually. Glutaraldehyde is the best option to spot treat plants. Stones and wood that can be removed from the tank can be treated with boiling water.

4. Investigate which plants are not growing great
This will probably be the ones with BBA. Check which ones are growing and which ones are not. Maybe this helps you to understand the problem.

Good luck!


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## freshestemo412 (Aug 19, 2016)

ed.junior said:


> I know you got a lot of feedback, and you might get crazy with that, so I will try to keep it short.
> 
> IME, BBA appears when you have some organic matter, not ideal co2 levels, and not a great growth on some plants.
> 
> ...



Thanks for the tips!

I think I hit the limit with CO2. When I come from work, I always look at my tank and I can see my 2 mollies at the surface 'smacking lips' so I assume gasping for air. I have a GLA diffuser in the tank, with barely any micro bubbles. As for flow.. I have a Hydor Nano 240 AND a SunSun wavemaker thats pushing 530GPH (Found on ebay for $4.99, Ill try it I said) so over 700+GPH of flow in a 20 long, all cause I kept reading about dead spots. All the plants have a nice sway in them.

I can cut back a lot of plants that have some of the BBA hairs I see growing on the leaves and I guess that will stimulate new growth since well there will be no leaves. I just cleaned up my filter, added Chemi Pure. I can remove as much as I see, but since having sand I only go over the surface lightly.

Ive tried the spot treat method.. while it does work, Id rather just cut the leaves away and let new ones grow in place.

I see some forming on my anubias, I just rubbed all the leaves yesterday, so the slow growing ones. Also, I have Limnophilia Aromatica that has great growth, but started getting some in the middle of the plant. So like I said earlier.. I just trimmed it, tossed it, and re-planted the tops. 

Ill try some trimming tonight, since I can see some BBA/hairs on some leaves, and hopefully that will encourage new growth all around.

Thanks!!


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