# BBA Peroxide dosing



## Carpman (12 Jul 2019)

I have been trying to manage a mass outbreak of the above, my own fault for poor maintenance been really busy over the last few months didn't notice the outbreak of BBA. Last weekend I did a 60% water change and a major trimming of plants (cut a lot of the BBA out) and have been dosing with 38mls daily of hydrogen peroxide following the general advice for clearing the rest of the BBA,  I'm currently on Day 6 with the peroxide and I don't see any change.
Trigon 190 tank, Co2 injection approx 8bps, EI ferts 20mls each per day, lights I think are 8hrs


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## Aqua sobriquet (12 Jul 2019)

I’ve seen a couple of different doses mentioned on YouTube for 3% H2O2. Anyone know anything different?


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## Zeus. (12 Jul 2019)

Carpman said:


> have been dosing with 38mls daily of hydrogen peroxide



Never used it, as better to resolve the issue/issues that caused the condition than treat the symptoms - blackout better option IMO



Carpman said:


> I have been trying to manage a mass outbreak of the above, my own fault for poor maintenance been really busy over the last few months didn't notice the outbreak of BBA.



which surgests its been slowly coming for some time and you unfortunately missed the early signs  we all have done it 



Carpman said:


> Last weekend I did a 60% water change and a major trimming of plants (cut a lot of the BBA out)



when I do a big trim I do double 50%+ WC as there will be lots of toxins and waste products in the water

Have you cleaned your filter out? or/and turkey blasted the substrate ? whats the filter output and any powerheads?



Carpman said:


> Co2 injection approx 8bps



 which tells us nothing unfortunately, have you done a pH profile and what colour does the DC change ?



Carpman said:


> lights I think are 8hrs



Cut back photo period to 5 to 6hrs hours max and consider a 3-5 day blackout (no peeping )


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## Carpman (12 Jul 2019)

@Zeus. I think I was the cause. The tank was going great, maybe a little to great lol. I decided to try and slow things down by adjusting co2 and ferts to about half of original values.The current peroxide dosage is 0.2 per ltr / 1ml per 5ltrs (190ltr tank) = 38ml.
I have never turned filter or pumps off after dosing. Never read that before today.
Not cleaned filter for about 4/6 wks, when I did the trimming I did do a lot hand waving over soil and pressing Mc down causing clouds of detritus to shift.
Filter (Eheim 4+ 350 output approx 1050ltrs ph  Coupled with a circulation pump upto 4000ltr ph.
Not done a profile recently as everything was going great (if it ain't broke dont try and fix it).


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## Aqua sobriquet (13 Jul 2019)

Turning off the filter is presumably to prevent beneficial bacteria being affected?

I had some green dust algae in my 10L Nano so I’ve been adding 1ml of 12% H2O2 with some fresh water once a week. The actual water volume in the tank is 7L. It was daily to start with but weekly seems to be working. Not noticed any detrimental effects. I’m still getting a little brown Algae though so I may stop treatment for a while. I only have plants though, no inhabitants.


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## Zeus. (13 Jul 2019)

Carpman said:


> Not done a profile recently as everything was going great (if it ain't broke dont try and fix it).



Agree  but you changed the injection rate, so with the lower injection rate you may have introduced an unstable [CO2] for the photo period eg it may not have peaked untill 2hrs into the photo period!


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## jkh13 (14 Jul 2019)

Aqua sobriquet said:


> Turning off the filter is presumably to prevent beneficial bacteria being affected?



Yes, never push the H2O2 into the filter, it will kill all the bacteria. You can run the filter if you remove the bio, some say the flow helps.


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## Carpman (14 Jul 2019)

Zeus. said:


> Agree  but you changed the injection rate, so with the lower injection rate you may have introduced an unstable [CO2] for the photo period eg it may not have peaked until 2hrs into the photo period!


 Yes, this is very true.



jkh13 said:


> Yes, never push the H2O2 into the filter, it will kill all the bacteria. You can run the filter if you remove the bio, some say the flow helps.


If that is correct that, then surely as soon as you turn the filter back on after 1hr period then it is going to do that anyway?

I'm doing a big-ish water change today and clean filter, start my second attempt at peroxide dosing during which I will shut down filtration but will leave circulation pump on for the 1hr period. If I don't see any change in next few days then blackout will be my next step.
Blackouts, No peeking I know. I'm assuming the inhabitants are fed  but how?  without letting light in (during dark hrs)


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## Aqua sobriquet (14 Jul 2019)

I think the expectation is that after an hour the H2O2 would have done it’s job and broken done into oxygen and water by then.


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## jkh13 (14 Jul 2019)

Carpman said:


> If that is correct that, then surely as soon as you turn the filter back on after 1hr period then it is going to do that anyway?



The idea is it gets broken down in the 1 hour period. I would recommend you use powerheads or an empty filter to get flow in the tank during the the hour to allow to reach all places and break down faster.


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## Carpman (20 Jul 2019)

The latest update, Peroxide didn't work (for me) I don't know why. My second attempt consisted of 4 days .02ml per ltr filtration gas and heater off prior to peroxide administration only powerhead running to circulate peroxide around the tank. I was hoping to have this rectified by now as I'm going on holiday for 2 weeks in ten days so time is getting tight didn't really want it in the tank while I was away. I have now started a 3-day blackout! 
I do a 1 question regarding blackout I feel it may be a bit of a stupid 1 though, Should Gas and ferts be stopped? 
(my thinking is yes as plants are not going to use them because there is no photoperiod)


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## Zeus. (20 Jul 2019)

All off for blackout, 5 days better than 3 IMO, no peeping


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## Carpman (20 Jul 2019)

Zeus. said:


> All off for blackout, 5 days better than 3 IMO, no peeping



Thanks, Zeus, it's Done. If this doesn't work then it will just have to wait till I get back from hols.


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## Zeus. (20 Jul 2019)

All off except filter OFC


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## Carpman (24 Jul 2019)

@Zeus.  I have just finshed my 5 day blackout, I reset and adjusted all the timers. I must say that I am/was really shocked to see what I saw.... No flaming change to the BBA so thats 8days peroxide dosing and the 5 blackout, this stuff is more stubborn than a house full of wives. Well there is nothing more I can do now, run out of time pre holiday to mess about. I did calibrate my ph pen ready for profiling and took base reading today prior to uncovering tonight and got a ph 7.35.


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## Zeus. (25 Jul 2019)

Carpman said:


> @Zeus.  I have just finshed my 5 day blackout, I reset and adjusted all the timers. I must say that I am/was really shocked to see what I saw.... No flaming change to the BBA so thats 8days peroxide dosing and the 5 blackout, this stuff is more stubborn than a house full of wives. Well there is nothing more I can do now, run out of time pre holiday to mess about. I did calibrate my ph pen ready for profiling and took base reading today prior to uncovering tonight and got a ph 7.35.





BBA can be quite resilient and tricky to get rid off, I had it in small amounts of BBA in my 500l tank along with Cyanobacteria in a couple of small patches in carpet next to glass at substrate level for nearly two years, was never to bad OFC, both went shortly after fitting my Mapxspect gyres 330 x2 and I increased the light also after they went, still hasn't returned. So better FLOW did the trick IMO.


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## agol77 (26 Jul 2019)

I’m probably about to be a bit controversial. 

I had a small amount of BBA a while ago, introduced on some plants that I should have thrown in the bin instead. 

I was doing 2 x 80% water changes each week, spot dosing hydrogen peroxide 6%, and trimming affected leaves. On my Aquascaper 900 I have an Eheim Pro 4 600 and 350 Thermo, along with the 350Skim, so plenty of flow. I did a pH profile and got it dialled in nicely. I cleaned the filters every two weeks, as well as using a turkey baster for the substrate. I cut back feeding the small number of fish to once a day. I reduced light intensity and photoperiod. And the BBA? It didn’t care about any of it. I would remove it or spot dose, and it would just pop up somewhere else a few days later. It was a small amount, but I was determined to get rid of it. 

The answer for me was Seachem Flourish Excel. I know people don’t like it, and maybe for good reason, but I used it, and it worked, I haven’t seen any BBA for about three months now, and I’m back to a much more sustainable maintenance schedule. 

I didn’t go nuts with the stuff, and used a double dose of the daily dose, not the big initial figure. I dosed the double figure for about a week, then did another two weeks at just the recommended dose. My fish and shrimp were unaffected, and my plants looked better than ever, particularly the Crypts. I haven’t dosed it for a while now, but still have a bottle here, just in case. 

Good luck with your fight. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## gcodrutv (31 Jul 2019)

@Carpman i had/have similar issue with you.
Initially, I spent over 3 months fighting with BBA. Dosed 20 - 30 ml of 6% H2O2 /day and Easy Carbo on alternative days with very little success.

The only solution it worked was to increase the flow by adding 2 Koralia Nano (1900l/h each) at both ends of the tank to increase the flow. I do have 1900l/h and 1250l/h filters in 320l long tank. Ph have been set to 6.1 on a controler 24/7. 
15ml Seachem Excel spot dosing each morning with filters and wave makers completely stopped. 50% water change every week and filters are cleaned when i do the water change.
The lights have been reduced to 6h photo period. Dosing EI daily with Macro one end of the tank @ 7am and micro @ 11.59pm at the other end of the tank.

I can say, during the Excel dosing, no casualties. I do have shrimps snails, ottos, cardinals and gourami, none of them have been affected.
I did not trimmed any affected plants and did not increased water change, just kept a very rigorous maintenance schedule. 

IMHO stable pH and increased flow was the key.
Most probably Easy Carbo will have similar effect. If the BBA change color from grey to purple/red ish, that means it's working. In 2-3 days it becomes white is and disappears. Most probably cleaning crew is looking after.

You can try to set the co2 to a medium level and leave it 24/7 for few days and observe the fish for any discomfort. Or if you can borrow a ph controller it would be better.
Zeus has a very interesting Co2 setup.

I hope it helps.


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## Carpman (2 Nov 2019)

I have been really busy since my last post on my BBA problems, Not really had much time to deal with it and my last attempt almost obliterated all my plants doing a 10 day+ blackout.
I must get this sorted as its starting to get me down every time I look in the tank all I see is the BBA and there is no way I'm going to let algae beat me into submission and tare tank down and start again!

My latest efforts are fitting Co2 reactor (sera 500) for better distribution (also cosmetics fed up with tank looking like a fizzy drink),  I purchased 4x2 fast-growing plants, large bottle easy carbo, and 20 Amano shrimp added Thursday week, shrimp disappeared immediately. Saw a few shrimp during maintenance last saturday
Last weekend's maintenance 80% water change included a complete strip-down of filter and pipework for cleaning.
I have been double dosing easy carbo (8ml per day + normal co2 injection) all week to no avail (no colour change) but I have seen the odd BBA floating round in the tank, DC has been yellow all but fish not showing any signs of oxygen starvation, still no sign of shrimp. I did do a PH profile last Sunday but I had started dosing with the easy carbo.

Not really sure what my next steps should be! I'm pi$$ed that the shrimp have disappeared almost overnight (£60) possibly because of the angel but never had an issue with the angel before with previous shrimp was hoping for assistance by them to eat the BBA.

Post 10 day blackout.


 

 After a little plant of new plants from propagate.


 

Sera 500 in action.




And a look at what I'm dealing with.


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## Kezzab (2 Nov 2019)

Ok, heres my tuppence worth. Stop double dosing easy carbo, its probably retarding the growth of your plants to.some degree.

Next do a water change and expose all your rock. Use an old tooth brush dipped in neat easy cardo/glute and scrub them. Make sure all the BBA gets a good soak/scrub. Refill. After about about 4-5 days you should start to see it change colour to grey white, eventually it disappear.

See if anyone on here can sell you a massive load of rotala trimmings for a few quid, get them planted and try and get some plant mass growing. This will help stabalise things. Then you can get back to getting the tank how you actually want it.
K


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (5 Nov 2019)

I support the above approach though would remove the rocks. I once killed off a lot of plants doing this... I suspect I used a lot of glut before I was done spot dosing.  Also if you remove them, you can give them a lot more abuse before returning.


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## Carpman (9 Nov 2019)

I have removed some of the surface rocks but the main/large are all sub-soil surface so and sitting on the stone below so can't really be removed. I started dosing/fogging with 10ml Excel on Sunday and so far has shown good results, I would say BBA is down by about 60% so I will continue with it while its working...


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## alto (9 Nov 2019)

For the taller rocks, drop water level to 20-30% (if you only do 50% water changes, find your comfort level ... I regularly do 80% water changes), measure out the appropriate Excel dose and apply directly to the BBA in rocks, eg, syringe etc or controlled spray (you don’t want to accidentally direct spray any livestock), wait 10-20 minutes (again depending on livestock response this can be longer/shorter, obviously longer exposure is more effective against stubborn (well established) BBA)

If you notice a large die-off in any type of algae, some large water changes are recommended to remove byproducts form algae breakdown (sometimes it’s just oxygen consumption so take steps to optimize oxygen levels in tank)

Once visible BBA is gone, I’d continue treating rocks a couple more times (eg, every 2-3 weeks over some months) re cracks etc in this rock surface 
As the BBA seems well established, I’d expect to rigorously pursue BBA for the next 6 months, then gradually return to a more general (relaxed) maintenance routine


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## Carpman (10 Nov 2019)




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