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BBA in CO2 injected tank

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aquanoobie said:
Funny, because BBA grows in high light and low light, also high flow and low flow, go figure ...

It grows in no water change tanks and also in continuous water change setups. It also grows in daily water change aquariums.
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Yes, it's always multiple variables at play with algae issues and plane crashes... If we knew the exact root cause we would not discuss this as frequently in the first place... Personally, I don't have any BBA in my tanks, but I also have low light, low iron, low organic waste, excellent nutrient distribution and do not inject CO2.... my WC routine is 25% every two weeks.... so thats fairly scarce .... but let me ask you a question: what do you think cause BBA and what is your experience with BBA ? ... Any practical advice to offer?

Cheers,
Michael
 
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I know BBA is a pain to remove, if you seem to get it in your own tanks ,ease oof able to take wood and rocks out to scrub or use a liquid carbon product helps, l think George Farmer in one of his articles gives all hardscape a good clean out of the aquarium, also small water change hose connected to a small wire brush as you scrub it the hose sucks up the mulm.
Strange some only get BBA on plants, leaf edges, and others only on wood , internal filters, outlet and inlets, etc, l have not had CO2 for a while ,all low energy at moment, but when l set the aquarium up l do it from a high energy perspective to "reduce "all algae to minimum, 50% daily first week, 50% every other day second week and so on, and l have soft water as l know @MichaelJ as, so background CO2 with W/changes maybe helps and good healthy plants
 
BBA might be different species for different people which might explain some of the variability in observations. For me, I have had ferocious BBA in a low tech tank that led to a total tear-down and rebuild and a much more modest amount in a high-tech CO2-injected setup. I see BBA on (mostly) hardscape and slower growing plant leaves but never on glass/acrylic which makes me think it likes/needs some type of rough surface to thrive. In my low tech tank the main difference between the BBA jungle and the current iteration which has been BBA-free for more than a year now is reduction in lighting intensity from 8 hours/day ASTA 20 16W LED at 40% power to 8 hours/day ASTA 20 16W LED at 20% power. I don't see any obvious relationship between BBA and water flow. Glutaraldehyde (undiluted 'liquid carbon') brushed on hardscape kills it very well.
 
Andy Pierce said:
BBA might be different species for different people which might explain some of the variability in observations.
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Yes, that is definitely true - Audouinella comes in variety.

Andy Pierce said:
I see BBA on (mostly) hardscape and slower growing plant leaves but never on glass/acrylic which makes me think it likes/needs some type of rough surface to thrive. In my low tech tank the main difference between the BBA jungle and the current iteration which has been BBA-free for more than a year now is reduction in lighting intensity from 8 hours/day ASTA 20 16W LED at 40% power to 8 hours/day ASTA 20 16W LED at 20% power. I don't see any obvious relationship between BBA and water flow.
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I agree. flow by itself wouldn't fix anything if our tank is lacking on other factors such as waste buildup, improper light etc. but I do think flow - or proper nutrient distribution - is a pretty important factor in the prevention of algae. In general, algae issues are caused by instabilities in our aquatic environments allowing the algae to gain an upper hand vs. our plants. If we have a low amount of organic waste, balanced light (mainly balanced intensity), proper and balanced amount of well distributed nutrients which will enable healthy plants, we are not going to struggle with algae - the operational word here is struggle because there is no such thing as a 100% algae free aquarium. The ratios of importance among the aforementioned factors are unknown. And of course, we are often not factoring in the specific needs of the variety of plants sp. we keep. For instance, in nature, Anubias (native to tropical central/west Africa) are often found in quite shady areas growing emerged... which may partially explain why they often appear to be algae magnets when exposed to high light and submerged in our aquariums under subpar water conditions - its just not their ideal environment.

Andy Pierce said:
Glutaraldehyde (undiluted 'liquid carbon') brushed on hardscape kills it very well.
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Yes, I've treated BBA with Excel in the past on Anubias in particular, first by removing the infected plants and gentle brush the infected leaves with a small painters brush and let it soak in for a minute or so. Works well.

Cheers,
Michael
 
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MichaelJ said:
but let me ask you a question: what do you think cause BBA and what is your experience with BBA ? ... Any practical advice to offer?
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I wish I had an answer ...

BBA has almost destroyed this hobby. I see it growing in aquariums of the most qualified and experienced experts including aquarium aquascaping judges.

I found, the only way to beat BBA is to have healthy plants producing enough allelochemicals to keep it suppressed.
 
I’ve *never had a tank that’s not had BBA.

I could reliably get BBA when using dead branches with bark on. However when using branches like this in soft soft water, I don’t get BBA. Anecdotal, most likely.

I’ve never had** high lighting, as high lighting has always caused me more algae. I can say that I have had BBA with low lighting.

I’ve never used CO2, but enough people get BBA with and without that I doubt it has much to do with it. Not the greatest contributing factor anyway.

I can’t be sure, but I’m pretty sure BBA grows in UK waterways, I’ve seen something like this on sedges and branches, in fast and slow flowing water.

Rhodochorton, is a very well adapted extremely difficult to kill algae. It can pass through a digestive system of grazers and regrow. Spores can live for days outside of water - apparently.

I dunno, basically my feeling on BBA is - if you’ve got it, go nuclear (bleach) or try and starve it by promoting plant growth etc. You might stop it growing, but you won’t ever eradicate it, without destroying everything else in the tank too.

* I can’t always see it, but I bet it’s there…
** I have used high energy lighting, but in the end I always dial it down, or get covered in floaters etc
 
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John q said:
Paraphrasing we could say that the high lighting levels have caused far more harm than bba, and I suspect high lighting intensity is "one" of the main drivers of bba, or at least the speed it grows.
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I would agree with this statement if there were inadequate nutrients for plants.

I have had planted aquariums with 500W ligting and also under direct sunlight with no BBA.
 
John q said:
Pics, or it didn't happen. 😃
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Really? You never seen planted tanks with hundreds of PAR intensities? It's more common these days with LEDs. I was running metal halides but neighbors were complaining they couldn't sleep.

And you can find planted tanks outside in the open with zero algae under the sun. Amazing, isn't it?
 
@aquanoobie It's just a phrase. We're not actually doubting what you're saying, we just want to look at other people's tanks.

Maybe it's a generational thing but maybe "pic or it didn't happen" is no longer what the cool kids say. I can't even be bothered with zoomer slang, it changes every month 😧
 
Im going to just point out about keeping tanks clean and also filters.
For sure i am really slack (lazy).
Think left my Oase 100 about 4 months a while back and it was like gravy in there, when i eventually cleaned it.
Honestly i have been influenced by YouTube and the 'I Never Clean My Tank Crew'.
Also i get paranoid that i will break my filter when i disconnect it. Silly i know.
Anyway now i am cleaning it once a month and feel it really needs it. Not just the sponges either, but a good flush out of the canister itself.
Im not shining it in there, but you know!

Also i have been looking at the dead spot below outlet. If i get the turkey baster and give it a puff, i realised theres quite a bit of free flowing detritus.
Im concentrating on getting that out during a water change rather that just getting the water and bits out...

Im just mentioning this because i dont thing that this can be a great thing when your battling BBA?
Have a look at your setup and see whats going on and let us know?
 
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