# Fungus / BBA on Redmoor Wood?



## Emyr (13 Dec 2020)

Hi All, 

I'm not sure if this is fungus or BBA on the wood, or both? No signs of anything on the plants... yet :/ 
Would really appreciate some help and advice with this one. 

1. 30X30X30 27L. 1 week planted, 2 weeks cycling period before that
2. Dennerle Scapers Flow
3. Twinstar 300E 10h total photoperiod. Dimmed to 50% for 8h, 1 hour fade in and out. 
4. ADA Aquasoil 
5. Dosing 1ml of Easycarbo daily 
6. 1 pump (2ml) of Tropica Specialized once a week
7. 50% water change weekly 
8. Planted 1 week ago. Fissidens, Salvinia auriculata, Weeping moss, Coral moss, Monte carlo, Pearlweed, mini java fern, Staurogyne repens
9. No inhabitants


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## Geoffrey Rea (13 Dec 2020)

Hi @Emyr



Emyr said:


> this is fungus or BBA on the wood



Looks like both. Given you have no livestock you could drop the water level and paint your wood with a conservative amount of neat easycarbo without getting it directly on your plants. It may take repeated applications, scrubbing with a toothbrush and multiple water changes but it would get your wood clear. It’s difficult with the picture quality, but does look like fungus/bacteria associated with startup and BBA getting a foothold.


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## Mr.Shenanagins (14 Dec 2020)

Idk about scrubbing the wood, that would create a new surface area for the wood to colonize bacteria again. It’s an irritating break in period with the redmoor root,  but shrimp and snails help. That’s also a very long lighting period for a tank with no CO2 and brand new plants.


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## Emyr (14 Dec 2020)

Thanks for the responses guys, really appreciate the help. 

I've reduced the lighting down to 6 hours a day at 50% intensity. I'm thinking about removing the Salvinia too as it's a pain when doing maintenance and seems to be being pushed under the water by the flow causing it to rot. It might not be helping with surface agitation either. I'll try draining down the tank and brushing the wood with Easycarbo but won't brush it off to try and let the bacteria cycle and go from there. 

Do we think the bacteria has then lead/caused the BBA? I know it's like opening a can of worms but I want to try and work out what's causing the BBA in the first place so soon after setting this low-tech up. I've read reducing the number of water changes helps to stabilize the CO2 but then I would be concerned about a buildup of organic waste. Others seem to have success with their low techs by staying on top of their water changes without causing BBA.


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## Mr.Shenanagins (14 Dec 2020)

There’s speculation that BBA feeds off of high levels of organics, which the wood is supplying a great deal of as it degrades.
In my tank I only had BBA on my redmoor wood. It did not start to disappear until I introduced an army of nerite snails. I have a strong suspicion that whatever the BBA was feeding off of on the wood it was no longer available because of the snails. But I do find it odd you have BBA with no CO2 injection, it’s not common to see BBA without some sort of higher CO2 access.


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## Emyr (15 Dec 2020)

With the right adjustment in conditions (reducing light, healthy plants, cleaning and reducing waste organics) - can / does BBA ever disappear on its own without the intervention of removing it manually or by blasting it with liquid carbon or H202?  I'm wondering if I make those adjustments and let the tank cycle and establish the right bacteria balance etc and I dose liquid carbon, maybe it'll clear itself up, or is that delusional?


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## dw1305 (15 Dec 2020)

Hi all,


Emyr said:


> With the right adjustment in conditions (reducing light, healthy plants, cleaning and reducing waste organics) - can / does BBA ever disappear on its own without the intervention of removing it manually or by blasting it with liquid carbon or H202?


Yes it does sometimes , we don't know why it just  stops growing, but we don't why <"it starts growing either">. 

It maybe to do with an <"alternation of generations">. Have a look at <"I stopped my BBA without......">.

cheers Darrel


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## Emyr (16 Dec 2020)

There are just so many differing opinions and theories about BBA, it's difficult to know what to believe and which approach to take but given that Co2 injection can be ruled out of the equation for my tank it makes it even trickier. 

Spot dosing the easycarbo doesn't seem to have had any effect so far. The algae does seem to come off very easily if I just rub the wood, it appears to just floating on the surface of the wood. Maybe it's growing on top of the bacteria? 

My plan is to do regular water changes (2 x 50% per week), dose Seachem pristine with the water changes, lighting at 6h 50% intensity, keep dosing easycarbo and make sure there's plenty of nutrients for the plants to grow in nice and healthy.  They don't look super healthy at the moment (probably due to not dosing enough to begin with).  Hopefully they'll then outcompete the algae in combination with also rubbing the algae off with a toothbrush frequently to make it hard for it to establish itself.


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