Also have issues getting rid of BBA. Spot treatment with Excel - worked Spot treatment with Scape Liquid Carbon - No real impact Spot treat with Peroxide - working Problem is that I get the BBA under control but never push to get rid of it completely. Thus in a few months I sit with issues again...This time I want to do it properly. All spot treatments are done with the daily dosage (carbon/excel). For the peroxide I don't go the full amount (available online as guidelines as ml per gallon), I stick to 5 ml daily in my 260l. Plants are still fine, critters are still fine. About a week down the line and the BBA has visibly disappeared. Areas that get more air bubbles (in and around air stones) the BBA tends to be more resilient. These I also give an extra dose when doing water changes (right on it, not in water). Peroxide works better in my opinion. I spot dose peroxide daily and then the normal dose of scape carbon and complete. The reason why the BBA bloomed recently was due to an increase in Nitrates due to my Platies having a LOT of babies. Picked up the high Nitrate level in a test and now moved to twice weekly water changes (40%) until I can offload the babies. I will test again this week to be sure the water changes are still keeping the levels acceptable.
I'm getting a bit off-topic right now but I'd love to know what Liquid Carbon doesn't work for algae while Excel does. As far as I know, they're both at almost the same dose of Glutaraldehyde. Either way, it definitely seems like peroxide is the more effective (and cheaper) remedy.
Agreed that peroxide is the better (and more economical) solution for spot dosing. Thanks for your feedback re. the photo period. Seems there are different views online as to how effective it it is against BBA. Was not convinced that it would work and your tests confirmed. I have little to no other algae issues...some green spot but nothing that a twice a month glass clean does not resolve I introduced the BBA (log I got from a buddy and did not clean it prior to putting it in my tank), so I have resolved to get it under control as it was my bad Looked for true SAE (not been able to find).. so added a bristle nose (also cause I like pleco's), have some ghost shrimp (large..want more..they are cool), some black mollies (and my platies pick at it) and snails All of these "control" the BBA unless the water parameters change...high nitrates and I have a bloom... So testing more regularly now and going to continue with treatments until I am satisfied
Sounds good @RyC123. I've also considered SAE as a helper. Also Amano shrimp but struggling to actually get my hands on them. I've also seen around here that Endlers will pick at the stuff and I do enjoy Endlers. Won't jump into anything just yet though. Hoping I can get it under control with the my current plan but at least there's a backup plan now! Thanks
Learned a couple things... Thanks to you @skua! ... - It's more likely hair algae than BBA. - It's caused by high nitrates. Which is odd because I do a 50% water change weekly and don't overfeed. I specifically feed mostly frozen food to avoid the tank getting gross. With nano fish, it's entirely affordable for me to do so. And I mostly stay away from bloodworms because that's the one frozen food that is still there, hours later. So that makes me think that the cause is the sudden explosion of snails. I left them thinking... well I'm not over-feeding so they'll go away. It happened last time... I just fed less and they disappeared. But this time they're not disappearing. I'm thinking maybe they're eating my plants? Not sure what else they could be eating. And their poop, I think, is contributing to the high nitrates. Either way, my next tank morning (Friday) I think I should test all water params and confirm the suspicion. In the meanwhile, I've been luring the snails onto blanched marrow and then... ummm... disposing of them. Humanely... or whatever helps you sleep at night
Don't think snail poop will cause a massive increase in nitrates. Might be wrong... What I have learned thus far is that each tank is unique. Testing will help to find the cause of an outbreak. Like more nitrates... The root cause and fixing that is the solution Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
Totally agree — gotta find the root cause and every tank is different. The sheer number of snails was insane. There was poop everywhere. Honestly it was pretty disgusting. I buried Osmocote capsules into my substrate but overdid it. From what I was told, 6 capsules would've been enough. I ended up putting in all 10. (Completely forgot the advice I got when I was "planting" it.) Maybe that could cause this? I'm also thinking maybe I'm over-fertilizing? With no CO2 in the tank (apart from the daily dose of Scape liquid carbon I was doing), daily ferts according to the bottle is maybe overkill? I've since stopped the Scape Liquid Carbon. Looks like a couple of my plants are looking a bit "sensitive" and I can't help but think that it was that. These are easy plants. Hydrocotyle Tripartita and Monte Carlo just aren't "taking". I'm sure I'll figure this out soon enough.
I use Scape carbon every day and my MC still grows like weeds, so likely not the cause of your problem. MC is pretty bullet proof so likely the basics just aren't there - possibly not enough light?
Yeah I think you're right! I have a single Zetlight but it's at the back of the tank so the foreground plants don't get much light. I've removed the wood which I think was blocking the light as well. Hopefully that'll get it going. I should know in about a week but I'm also trying to figure out how I can move the light to the front of the tank but still keep the Juwel tank closed at the front. Gonna experiment with cable ties soon. At the end of the day, my background plants are super-easy fast growers. Don't think they need all that light right above them. And I think it'll look pretty to have them "reach" forward to get some light. We'll see.
