# Tear Down - Frustrated w/ BBA



## tkbellwood (May 16, 2011)

I fell you. I have one of my tanks that had it pretty bad. My wife called it the toupe. I changed my lighting, Ferts and CO2 and it calmed down and is not growing. Piece by piece I am cleaning the equipment and trimming the damage. 

Glad I didn't need to go as drastic as your talking about.


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## Java Moss (Jan 17, 2011)

tkbellwood said:


> Glad I didn't need to go as drastic as your talking about.


Ha. No kidding! 

It's origination came from my two week Christmas vacation out of town where I incorrectly programmed the lights and they ended up staying on the entire time we were gone. Sure, my plants were massive when I came back, but BBA formed on them as well. I suspect because of that continuous light period facilitated some super-resilient algae where since then has been a losing battle. 

I absolutely detest having to be drastic, but every plant I replace ends up getting suffocated sooner or later irrelevant how much CO2 and Excel they receive, even under days without any light at all.

Oh well. I'm sure many keepers have been there; forced to take such measures. Might as well suck it up and try again.


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## tharsis (Oct 9, 2009)

I had a similar experience when I went away, thought I had it all automated but came back to a tank full of BBA because my CO2 tank had run out.

but the H2O2 and excel should really take care of it, what has been your photoperiod during treatment? 

I found that drastically reducing the photoperiod during treatment helped ALOT. I reduced my photoperiod down to 4 hours T5HO and I used the recommended dosages of excel as spot treatments everyday along with H2O2 spot dosing every couple days and it all went away after a couple weeks. The reduced lighting prevented the surviving BBA from spreading while I spot treated from one location to the next. I kept the reduced photoperiod for atleast a month and then slowly increased it once the BBA looked to be in check. 

Just a thought, if you haven't tried that, it may be worthwhile instead of nuking your tank.


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## bryfox86 (Apr 6, 2011)

I am having this same issues... I thing I should be able to get it under control since it is not nearly as bad as it could be... just on a piece of DW and a few plants.. Excel and H2O2... 4 hours of light... we will see what happens.


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## fresh.salty (Jul 2, 2010)

Sounds extreme since you could introduce it back into the tank with your first plant addition.


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## cheaman (Jan 22, 2009)

Lots of CO2 and big time circulation. I upped my CO2, changed my return to a full lngth spray bar and added 2 Hydor nano power heads and it went away. Hasn't been back since.


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

cheaman said:


> Lots of CO2 and big time circulation. I upped my CO2, changed my return to a full lngth spray bar and added 2 Hydor nano power heads and it went away. Hasn't been back since.


So you blew it out of the tank. ;-)


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## Dave-H (Jul 29, 2010)

I went to EI dosing with dry ferts, reduced the light period to 8 hours, increased CO2 and the BBA stopped growing. I've started doing daily Excel (normal dose) and I will probably step that up to 2 x normal dose to see if I can kill of the remaining algae. I'm also trimming away at leaves that have algae. 

Now I will increase the circulation a bit more with a new powerhead, and that should probably get the tank into good shape. It makes sense to me that if you tear down the tank then rebuild it the same way, you'll get your BBA back.


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## tharsis (Oct 9, 2009)

^ I agree that fact that the OP's BBA keeps coming back suggests that there is still an imbalance somewhere.


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## The Dude (Feb 8, 2011)

I had it bad in my high tech 46g. I did the 14 day 3X Excel on the plants and wood and rocks and scraped what I could. I uprooted and did a straight Peroxide dip on those then replanted. Finally I went to dry ferts and raised my C02. All of my BBA is gone as is almost all of my algae except for the occasional spot of green algae on the glass. I've never had it in my low tech 20g shrimp tank and doubt I'll have issues with my newly setup 75g now that I've got the main things down. The key is to get your plants to a point where they out compete it. My plants took off with the addition of dry ferts and more C02


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## Java Moss (Jan 17, 2011)

I'm done with all the above listed things regarding this current infestation. 

Previously with BBA instances, all those pointers worked great. Got rid of it completely and it lasted for almost a year until the next time, which had to do it again and it went away just like the last time.

But this particular situation, it hasn't done squat. I mean NOTHING. I don't know if two weeks of round the clock high-output lighting made it super-charged, but sometimes enough's enough. Drastic measures, unfortunately.


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## night9eyes (Jan 12, 2011)

Instead if using clove oil to dispose of some of the fish, why not post a "free fish" add on Craigslist. . . or do you know any friends with tanks that might tank some of the fish. I mean, unless they are sick beyond help, this seems like a better idea in my mind.


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

Set up a cheap 20 gal long with air stones and recirc power head to hold your livestock and then nuke the main tank with massive CO2 and Excel.


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## fresh.salty (Jul 2, 2010)

^^^

Hydrogen peroxide works great without livestock.


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## Java Moss (Jan 17, 2011)

night9eyes said:


> Instead if using clove oil to dispose of some of the fish, why not post a "free fish" add on Craigslist. . . or do you know any friends with tanks that might tank some of the fish. I mean, unless they are sick beyond help, this seems like a better idea in my mind.


Good call. I did contact a local LFS (RMS Aquaculture, Parma, OH) to see if they'd take them and they said yes, so I'm heading over there to drop them off. 




audioaficionado said:


> Set up a cheap 20 gal long with air stones and recirc power head to hold your livestock and then nuke the main tank with massive CO2 and Excel.


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## night9eyes (Jan 12, 2011)

Java Moss said:


> Good call. I did contact a local LFS (RMS Aquaculture, Parma, OH) to see if they'd take them and they said yes, so I'm heading over there to drop them off.



Glad to hear the fish will live on.


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## Mikesturttank (May 19, 2011)

night9eyes said:


> Instead if using clove oil to dispose of some of the fish, why not post a "free fish" add on Craigslist. . . or do you know any friends with tanks that might tank some of the fish. I mean, unless they are sick beyond help, this seems like a better idea in my mind.


X2 no need to kill them. There's alway's someone that would be glad to come get them. People like me who have turtle tanks love to get free fish because we are taking a risk anyway. Give it a shot on CL. ---Mike


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

If you don't fix the underlying problem, you'll just be in the same boat. 

Reduce your light, up your co2, up your nutrients.


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## they call me bruce (Feb 13, 2011)

dont beleive the circulation thing by itself one of bba's favorit places to grow in my tank was the out flow! what did work for me thanks to tom barr was very small changes over a 4week period-- i set the co2 reactor a;lmpost at the bottom of the tank never moved my lighting that is 8 inches off the water 2 watts per gal th50 kept my pherts up --no N and micros also florish iron every 4or5 days when i did my water changes once a week at 30% I would use h2o2 in a needle to spot kill when water leval was low Nitrates 10 ppm 0 nitrates .12 amonia Ph 6.8 and my BBA is disolving a way but it took 6 weeks of minor changes faster than that activates that *** Its been a long road but i think im there --Try it out


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## Jeff5614 (Dec 29, 2005)

they call me bruce said:


> dont beleive the circulation thing by itself one of bba's favorit places to grow in my tank was the out flow! what did work for me thanks to tom barr was very small changes over a 4week period-- i set the co2 reactor a;lmpost at the bottom of the tank never moved my lighting that is 8 inches off the water 2 watts per gal th50 kept my pherts up --no N and micros also florish iron every 4or5 days when i did my water changes once a week at 30% I would use h2o2 in a needle to spot kill when water leval was low Nitrates 10 ppm 0 nitrates .12 amonia Ph 6.8 and my BBA is disolving a way but it took 6 weeks of minor changes faster than that activates that **** Its been a long road but i think im there --Try it out


iwas interested in whattomsadvicewas to you but darnedif icanmakeheadsortalesout ofit


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## Java Moss (Jan 17, 2011)

Follow up to last Friday's entry: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/al...ted-w-bba.html


Probably a boring read, but here's what I did and the results thus far.
55 Gal tank, BTW

* Donated 3/4 of livestock to local LFS; keepers quarantined into unused and rinsed storage bin with heater, old Marineland bio-wheel filter and air stone. Trashed all plants, most of them covered in BBA.
* Emptied tank and took it to the backyard, filling with roughly 98% water and 2% bleach for 10-12 hours.
* Boiled gravel, emptied tank and scrubbed thoroughly.
* Filled tank with water and x5 dose of Prime for 12 hrs
* Emptied tank, put back in house onto it's stand, inserted sterilized gravel, filled using garden hose, added 3x dose of Prime, turned on heater for 24 hrs
* Took foam from upstairs tank filter (AC 50 in a 20 Gal. Long), cut it in half, placed into Fluval C4 HOB filter, added new bio-balls into bio and carbon pack compartments and watched tank turn milky white within ten hours.
*This morning, the water is now almost completely clear, which I did not expect, but was pleased. Checked readings using API master test kit...all readings are low.
*40% water change, using x2 Prime.
*Took fish out of QT into kept pet store bags, sat them on water surface for half an hour and released.
* Fish were lethargic acting for a couple hours - hiding in corners and such - but slowly came back to their usual selves - swimming around tank and acting okay. No red inflammation near dojo loaches gills or top of heads - redness signifies slight ammonia poisoning.

Continuing to check readings daily, along with roughly 20% water changes using x2 Prime. Fish seem to be feeding and swimming good without incident. Keeping lights off as well.

Am I naively rushing it and asking for deaths-out-of-nowhere? Or, has anyone done something similar to good results?


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## they call me bruce (Feb 13, 2011)

tom barrs advice was to make small suttle changes over a long period of time--sorry im not real good at typing and my spelling s**ks my water paramiters i thought could be usefull,

I think it was good to start off with everything New but it will take time to stabelize make a plan and stick to it
You will need the wisteria to fight the nitrates and amonia


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## they call me bruce (Feb 13, 2011)

hey jeff just check out your tank its a beauty


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## herns (May 6, 2008)

> Reduce your light, up your co2, up your nutrients.



+1. Few years ago I lost interest of this hobby bec of BBA. I ve learned to crank up CO2 and less light. Now, I dont have BBA in my tank.


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