Hey to all. It has been a while since I last posted something. I've setup my tank from scratch and treated the plants against the horrible BBA plague. The only thing I haven't done is to treat the filter media. Mr black beard made a return to my tank and now I think the cause lies in the filters. So anyone plz give me some good advice how I should go about to treat the filters and kill all known BBA spores inside
I've added more circulation still BBA comes back and say hi. Dosing excel and H2O2 only hurts my vallis and doesn't touch the BBA. Its like everytime I get rid of BBA it comes back stronger and more stubborn. Where can I get nerite snails and are they really that good against BBA??
Heard Nerite snails can even eat GSA...which is normally to hard for ancistrus, otos, etc... Still not sure if the rock hard eggs are worth it tho :s
To put it this way its one of the snails I must still try in my tank. Ramshorn, trumpets and apples have been in the tank before. If its really going to keep the BBA under control I will def get some. The hard eggs I can still handle bt the big B is killing me
CO2 - pressured CO2 running from 14:00-21:00 Lights - using 2x54w T5 6500k & 8000k on from 16:00-23:00 Tank - its a normal size 4ft tank 120x45x45 if I remember correctly Filter - all internal sponge filter 1200lph & 600lph one 1200lph powerhead to run the reactor and a 3000lph wavemaker. Substrate - I'm using pfs. Plants - some name I can remember anubias, ferns, bacopa, swords, crypts, vallis, star grass, cobra grass and siamensis. Fts Hope this answers the questions haha
i think you got too little fast growers..ive never done this but maybe try lessening your photo period? thats the only thing i can really think of.. oh and how many BPS are you running your CO2 at?
one more thing to add is that i think some tanks have underlying causes as to why they get BBA.. BBA isnt caused by spores. for instance, my one friend has a tank which NEVER gets BBA. if i take a plant with BBA on it and plant it in his tank, the BBA starts to go away on its own!? so its always better to treat the cause and not the symptoms..
I'm also having problems with BBA. Seems I managed to spread it to all my tanks. *sarcastic YAY!* I've seen the common pond snail sitting on a clump of it, but no idea if they're actually eating it. I'm considering buying a new canister filter for my high-tech tank. And I see the Boyu version now comes with a built-in UV sterilizer.
Wonder if someone that's bored...with a few spare tanks...shouldn't cultivate a specific algae in 5 or 6 tanks...and try different "treatments", blackouts, snails, algae eaters, etc in each...to see which really work...and which are just hear-say
@shihr. Fast growers - what's the fastest grower that I can try to see if that will help? Light period - I'm on 7hours a day should I reduce it to 6 or make it even lesser? BPS - Eish that's a thing I could never manage to count. Maybe I can send you a video on whatsapp then help me to count it?! Better to treat cause - yeah they all give me this advice bt hey its darn difficult to find the cause of this algae in my tank. Uv sterilizer - will it really help against this bad boy algae? @JAX - yeah that would be awesome then we can all get some serious advice from his. Strangely enough this is the only algae I'm struggling with!
i have this unproven theory that i am trying atm.. i am using less CO2.. i was cranking it at one stage and the BBA just seemed to get worse! so i thought about it, CO2 drops the pH.. so.. too much CO2 theoretically would make the pH swing quite dramatically and this is said to be one of the reasons for BBA.. note: im not saying turn it down completely though. uv sterilizer will only work for algae which passes through it. if BBA is still on the rocks, it will still stay there. i would try 6hrs and also add some excel. fast growers.. hmm..some HM?
Will HM grow in low light? I've tried excel before without any success so I stopped using it. I still have some left. Okay so will drop the lights with an hour first and see how the BBA goes about.
Hello, read http://www.apsa.co.za/xenforo/threads/cyanobacteria-purmycin.12264/page-2#post-164295 and try the experiment and see whether the issue CO2 or N. Nerites are great. Good luck finding them. They are native to KZN (Neritina natalensis) so you should be able to find some with the right contacts. They are found in costal rivers and streams (mainly in the esturies). I find they are great with GSP and string/hair algaes. I haven't tested them on BBA and others. They ships easy: put them in a ventilated tub with some damp tissue paper and they travel without water.
So I adjusted my lights to only 4 hours a day. Hopefully it will work. There is some spots in the tank that I can keep an eye on. Thnx for the link tyrone will go and check it out
@shihr concerning the pH swing. Do u think its wise to turn lights and CO2 on at once instead of CO2 before lights? There by there will be no pH swing and still CO2 in the water!
If your water is properly buffered, you shouldn't have radical pH swings. I've added marble chips to my filters and I never get BBA in my tanks.
