Hey all! I have bba in a planted tank, that i think the cause was unstable co2. Have been doing the blackout thing and just doesnt seem to go away.Should i cut ALL the infected leaves off and move on with my life or should i just be patient? The plants that grow realy quik are ok.Do you If i cut all away and do 100% wc(as i want to move the tank)it would do the trick. desperate
Hi @wabba What makes you think it's an unstable CO2? Are you using CO2 at all? What method... DIY or pressurized? If DIY... chuck it out. Not worth the yeast you buy! BBA is, as you stated in your heading.... STUBBORN, and IMO one of the hardest to get rid of. The 3-4 day blackout often kills everything else except the BBA. @Rudi gave me this trick to deal with it... Go buy yourself (1) Seachem Flourish Excel and (2) a syringe. If you don't have a piece of airtubing lying around, get some of that too. Calculate the daily dosage of Excel your tank requires, and every day, when you add it, fill the syringe to the recommended dosage, as the airtubing to the end, and simply spurt a few millimeters of Excel directly onto the areas infected with the BBA. You may take a few weeks to work from one end of the tank to the other, but it does work pretty well. Patience is key with the algae. Too many people have chucked in the towel because of this algae. Obviously removal of the algae would be key... but because the spores are microscopic, you will never completely remove everything.
iv got the same problem, at the moment im just cutting down on the photo period a bit weary of the excel as the only plant growing well in the tank is vallis would hate to see that go.i suppose if i needed an excuse for a rescape now iv got it lol
Hey, Thanks for the tip i will keep that in mind if it comes back as i cut off all i could see and rescaped my tank.I suppose you could do something similar as a preventative measure. Off the subject, i got a big chunk of moss on tuesday, the guy at the lps cant or wont tell what it is. I recon its probally java, They say it begins to grow once it has acclimatised to the 'new' water. How long does this normally take and should i continue doing wc during this time?
Hmmm... now you have me doubting myself. I've used it a lot with my vallis in the past, and I didn't pick up any negative effects. @Rudi ? @wersbunnyslippers ? @Laure ?
Ive used excel in my tanks with Vallis in and mine melted, took about a month for the Vallis to get used to excel. Just try and not use the excel to close to the vallis.
Problem is the BBA is al over the tank on the glass on plants(vallis incl) on the driftwood EVERYWHERE
I dose 1ml of Excel in my river tank daily(roughly 75liters of water) - the Vallis is going ape... Biomass of it has increased 5 fold in the 8 weeks the tank has been running...just my 2 cents worth... Did however notice a slight dip in the way it looked in the 1st week or so,recovered and now marching forth... Alternatively,get a SAE or two - they do a pretty decent job of munching it...(and your moss if you have any - cant win everytime)
BBA is tough, but patience is the key. Excel directly onto the BBA is the best option, but try a 2x dose, in other words, if you tank needs 5ml Excel as per directions, use 10ml. Shut down the filter so there is no water movement. Wait a few minutes just for the flow to stabilise. Then squirt Excel directly onto the BBA, wait 20 minutes then start up the filter again. Do this daily, and within a few days the BBA will turn pink and then slowly start disintegrating. Keep up this process until you see no more BBA, and then keep dosing regular strength Excel for another 2 weeks. If you squirt it directly onto the Vallis is 2x strength for the tank, the Vallis will probably not make it. Moss also do not like this. I suggest cutting off all infected leafs of Vallis; it should bounce back pretty quickly. It you have BBA on hardscape items and equipment, remove those from the tank and give it a 5 minute bleach dip (10:1 mix), scrub well and rinse well to remove the bleach. Dry it out in the sun and return to the tank.
