What to use for BBA

[rolloffhill]

In a non-planted tank. I need to completely kill BBA out of my African tank. I had transfered some Anubias from my BBA infested planted tank into my African tank, and now it's taken over. I want to completely kill it and then reintroduce the Anubias in there. The Anubias will get a bleach dip before they go back in the tank. I had been taking out all the holey rock and bleaching it, but it is also growing on my overflows and other places that I can't directly clean with bleach.

So what do I use?

[biggin]

UV does a nice job on it....

[rolloffhill]

It's on my planted tank right now. I'm looking for a chemical that is fish safe and not algae friendly.

[biggin]

Copper?

[ElijahTurtle]

Phosban will help. BBA thrives on excess phosphates. Black out the tank, do lots of water changes & Phosban. Bleach dip eveything that you can remove from the tank.
If it was a planted tank, you would want to dose with 5-10 ppm of nitrate & maintain that level.

If it was BGA then you could kill it with antibiotics.

[kewlkatdady]

what is bba?

[bra8ndy8]

I thought I was the only one who didn't know....lol.....I was waiting for someone to spell it out....or ask!!

[rolloffhill]

Black Beard Algae

[ElijahTurtle]

what is bba?
I thought I was the only one who didn't know....lol.....I was waiting for someone to spell it out....or ask!!

For those of you not sure about different algaes, Here's the short version of identification on the "three dreaded infestations". There are more kinds, but these are the nuisance algaes that are harder to eradicate.
BGA - Blue-Green Algae(Dark Green slime, Which is acctually cynobacteria)
GHA - Green Hair Algae(Long green Stringy junk)
BBA - Black Beard Algae(Short black fuzzy junk)

[AndrewH]

I thought the #1 killer of BBA was CO2?

I dunno for sure, maybe I'm thinking of something else.

[ElijahTurtle]

I thought the #1 killer of BBA was CO2?

I dunno for sure, maybe I'm thinking of something else.
That works too, but it's not a planted tank.

[Haiven]

Okay, here's what has worked for me.

1) Take affected item out of tank (including filter intake, if necessary).

2) Put it on the back porch in full sun for two days.

3) Rub it lightly to remove BBA.

4) Return item to tank.

[rolloffhill]

Well that's the problem is getting the bba killed off of the stuff that doesn't come out of the tank. It's growing on the intake of the overflow on the tank, who knows how much is growing in the overflow where I can't see it. Tank is drilled and overflows are siliconed in place.

I guess worst case is I could always overdose excel directly on the attached parts. I was looking for something a little cheaper and permanent.

[Kathy]

I'm starting to see BBA on my 3D background in the non-planted tank. I thought that was strange. There's no sign of it in my planted tank.

I've tried removing the little tufts with a wire brush but they are near impossible to remove. Since the background is siliconed in, there is no option for removing it. I tried leaving the lights off for a few days and that did seem to set it back, but it was by no means erraticated. I'd be interested in hearing any solutions too.

[budwick weiser]

I'm starting to see BBA on my 3D background in the non-planted tank. I thought that was strange. There's no sign of it in my planted tank.

I've tried removing the little tufts with a wire brush but they are near impossible to remove. Since the background is siliconed in, there is no option for removing it. I tried leaving the lights off for a few days and that did seem to set it back, but it was by no means erraticated. I'd be interested in hearing any solutions too.

how big is the tank? there are a bunch of ameca splendens at the fish place ranging in all sizes.

[Kathy]

It's a 125 with Discus, 2 bn and 2 clown loaches. I'd prefer not to add more fish.

I was just reading something about dosing with excel. There's no CO2 on this tank so I might give that a try. Then I'm going to lose these lights and get some with a lot less juice.

[rolloffhill]

how big is the tank? there are a bunch of ameca splendens at the fish place ranging in all sizes.

They really don't do anything for BBA. As much as people say that they do, I have had no luck with them eating any BBA dead or alive.


It's a 125 with Discus, 2 bn and 2 clown loaches. I'd prefer not to add more fish.

I was just reading something about dosing with excel. There's no CO2 on this tank so I might give that a try. Then I'm going to lose these lights and get some with a lot less juice.


It does work, but it can get expensive and I have yet to eradicate it with excel. I can take a syringe and squirt it directly on the bba, and it will turn red in a matter of hours. For some reason it keeps coming back, unless you find every single piece of algae in that tank and directly inject it on it, it will come back. I think it would take a lot of excel dosed heavily just to kill it.

I was dosing 50ml per day for 14 days in a 75 gallon tank and its still in there. So for my tank I'd have to dose at least 150ml/day for 14 days.

That is a little over 2 liters at ~$45, with no guarantees that it's gone for good......:mad:

[Kathy]

Well Hell...that's not very promising.

[rolloffhill]

I know that's why I haven't attempted to use that yet. I'm hoping for a better answer. I'll keep looking....:(

[poel_19]

updates on this???

[rolloffhill]

Excel injected directly on the plants at 3x the normal doses and higher co2 levels is all I can account for. Oh and bleach dipping my plants that had it bad, mostly anubias...

[mrsadler]

me too :hehe::hehe:I thought I was the only one who didn't know....lol.....I was waiting for someone to spell it out....or ask!!

[Homer_Simpson]

When I first set converted my 40 gallon tank to a planted tank, I made some novice mistakes and ended up with all types of algae imaginable. The only thing that I found that got rid of the Black Beard Algae was the introduction of a "real" siamesis algae eater and albino bristlenose pleco. Some say that black mollies will also happily devour it. I know that you don't want to add more fish and this may not be an option for you, but IME, this is the only thing that worked in erradicating my black beard algae and kept it from rematerializing.

What is interesting is that Tom Barr a noted aquarium plant guru with many years of fish and plant keeping experience contends that Black Beard Algae results from too frequent water changes.

[ElijahTurtle]

The only other thing I know of that might eat it other than the SAE's & bristlenose would be tadpoles. They will even eat BGA slime.

[Kathy]

Well I hope that tearing the whole tank down and bleaching everything does the trick...I'm tired of fighting this stuff.

I've moved the discus out and they are quite cramped right now in their holding tank.

I'm going to scoop out all of the quartz tomorrow. Tear down the filters and bleach the heck out of everything!

I went and bought new quartz (white and red) to add when I'm done.

I'll let y'all know how it goes...pray for me! If this doesn't work, I'm getting rid of the quartz and background and going back to the boring bare bottom tanks that have worked for me for 7 or 8 years now.

[rolloffhill]

Good luck, I feel your pain....

I have yet to put my my tank back together since my bleaching...

Were the anubias you sent me in this tank??:eek:

[Kathy]

No, those came out of my planted tank that doesn't show any signs of BBA. I had a few pieces of planted driftwood in the tank for a short time but got tired of having to clean around them so I took them out. I didn't see the BBA for a month or two after I removed the few plants that I had in there but I guess that I have to consider that may be where it came from.

[rolloffhill]

:hehe: I was just messin with ya.

I got plants from all over sent to me, and like a dumbass I didn't dip any of them....

[dpatterson]

mollies are hair and bba eating machines

[pam916]

I wonder if olive nerite snails would eat it? From what I understand they are supposed to be algae eating machines but do not eat plants. Any input on that?

[supersmirky]

That is correct, they are great for planted tanks.

[Kathy]

Ok...here's my journal of my BBA adventure.

Here's the stage where I've had enough. I've tried excel, leaving the lights off, trying to scrub it off...nothing works. I emptied all of the fish out, emptied all of the quartz, and filled the tank up with a gallon of bleach and water. I let that sit for a couple of days and as you can see, it did kill the algae even though I still had to scrub the *&%^$ out of it to get it all off.

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l204/kjmillerfw/IMG_9305.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l204/kjmillerfw/IMG_9306.jpg

That was some nasty stuff!

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l204/kjmillerfw/IMG_9309.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l204/kjmillerfw/IMG_9310.jpg

Kathy added 3 Minutes and 32 Seconds later...

After several rinsing refills and bleaching the filters and all other contents, I refilled it and added new quartz. Note a little cloudiness but after 24 hours, and one drain and refill, all was good.

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l204/kjmillerfw/IMG_9316.jpg

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l204/kjmillerfw/IMG_9319.jpg

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l204/kjmillerfw/IMG_9325.jpg

This was a 2 week pain-staking process so I hope that it worked. If not, I give up!

[bra8ndy8]

OMG THAT TANK IS GORGEOUS!!! WOW!!!!!!!! I can honestly say I have never seen any prettier Discus in my life!! WOW!!!!!!

[Kathy]

Thanks. As you can see from their bars, they weren't real happy about being moved...again...and again. They aren't much into that. I have a few more that still need to be moved but I ran out of time to deal with it.

These are some of the babies that you see with the pair that are in my POTM photo.

[bra8ndy8]

Well I wouldn't have even noticed the algae looking at them!!

[pam916]

Gorgeous fish and I love the background.

[supersmirky]

Yes, they are absolutely beautiful. It's what I would expect to see in magazines or something. Guess that is why she is the discus snob! lol

[niko]

BBA develops when there are organics floating around in the tank. What are "organics" I do not know exactly, but I do know that overfeeding, high fish load, inconsistent care and such lead to high organics.

An excellent way to get BBA is to have an underravel filter. Part of the mulm gets into the water column and BBA gets thick and healthy.

So - the first thing to do against BBA is to make sure the organics are minimal. Less feeding, frequent small water changes, a lot of plants (they seem to be able to make use of at least some of the free organics) and so on, you get the picture.

Also - Seachem Excel. Dosing 3x the dose recommended on the bottle is pretty crazy. It will harm shrimp, fish, and also some plants. It is best to couple the excellent maintenance with normal doses of Excel + patience. takes several weeks for the BBA to disappear.

Other than that - what Kathy did is the only way. Truly BBA is an algae from hell. Neritina snails don't eat it.

--Nikolay

[rolloffhill]

Truly BBA is an algae from hell.
--Nikolay

Man you got that right.

Lately for me it comes and goes and it pretty much follows the lines of what you just said. If I slack on maintenance it shows up. I thought I noticed it worse when the plant load was higher so I trimmed heavily and it seemed to get better.

I'm dosing EI now and doing weekly WC's, but I guess I should bump it up to twice a week and see if I can get it back in control.

It's just damn frustrating to the point where I don't wanna mess with live plants anymore...

[niko]

Well, often people let the planted tank deteriorate and then fight the problems. I have done that many times.

But if you watch it closely from day 1 after the 4-th month or so any tank is pretty much stabilized and with very few problems.

--Nikolay

[rolloffhill]

Thanks for the advise, I'll admit I got behind.

Between being addicted to this site, the job and the little one at home, the tank isn't really getting the attention it needs.

I'm workin on it though.:o