# Plecase help me identify the problem



## Cristina (10 Sep 2014)

I recently bought some plants and added them to my fish tank. Today I have noticed something on the edges of the leaves on most of my plants.






Please help me with any advice you got
Edit: I did some water tests ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and they are *all zero*.

I have a *72L* tank with *CO2 injected* with Sodastream cylinder (10 hours)
*Light* 2xT5 24W (5 hours with one hour break in 2h on, 1h off, 3h on).
External heater and *filter* Eheim 620l/h.

*Fertilising* method PPS-Pro with micro and macro solutions, 1.5ml each daily. (More info:
https://sites.google.com/site/aquaticplantfertilizer/home/pps-pro)

I have 10 amano shrimps.
*Water change* once a week 30L

General view of the tank:




Thank you


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## John S (10 Sep 2014)

Looks like BBA.

You will need to provide some more information on your tank like lighting type, wattage and duration, is it Co2 injected, tank size and filter etc


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## Cristina (10 Sep 2014)

Thanks, I just edited the post and added more info. I will start dosing 1.5 ml Flourish Excel daily,  as I have a CO2 injection system also and I don't want to harm the shrimps. Do you think that is a good idea?


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## Julian (10 Sep 2014)

Definitely BBA, too much light in the tank they were grown in. Depending on your light, it may either grow or just stay there and not do much, it won't really disappear though and if it does it will take months. SAE and Ottos might give it a chomp, dosing excel will only inhibit it's growth unless you apply it directly via syringe, but this may damage the plant.


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## Henry (10 Sep 2014)

I'd remove one of the bulbs from your light fixture for the time being too.


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## Jaap (11 Sep 2014)

Leave the lights on for 5 hours straight...no need to have a break in between.
Start the CO2 2-3 hours before lights on and shut it off on lights off....no need to have it for 10 hours.


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## Edvet (11 Sep 2014)

Cristina said:


> I did some water tests ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and they are all zero.


 Please don't trust these tests, plenty of evidence these are useless.

It looks as if the BBA are on the old emerged grown leaves, if so remove these leaves. If not you can stil remove them as it will be hard to get rid of it. Growing lots of fresh uninfected leaves is what you are aiming for, anfd thrim away the infected ones.
http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm


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## allan angus (11 Sep 2014)

hi welcome to the forum


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## sciencefiction (11 Sep 2014)

Cristina said:


> Edit: I did some water tests ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and they are all zero.


 


Edvet said:


> Please don't trust these tests, plenty of evidence these are useless.



It's not that I wouldn't trust the tests, at least in relation to ammonia/nitrite and fish tolerance they are a fine indicator, but algae needs a lot less of these in order to thrive, which the tests don't detect. Think of it that ammonia is technically never 0 in a tank because it's constantly produced by the fish and other bacteria.
Nitrate test is very unreliable but my tap water has less than 1ppm nitrate and the test never failed showing 0 nitrates. So I'd up the nitrate dose a bit in your tank, whether the test is right or not it will not hurt and could be one of the reasons your plants are growing BBA on them. When plants are not healthy, they start releasing organics on which BBA thrives, hence BBA is always growing on unhealthy plants and areas of high organic content.


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## Cristina (13 Sep 2014)

Thank you all for your being so helpful. I did some changes to the aquarium: 
1. I changed the CO2 and light settings - light 5 hours straight, CO2 8 hours straight (2h before the lights and 1h after the lights off)
2. I clean up the plants. Lots of leaves scraping and pruning.
3. Clean up the filter, it was not very dirty but it needed a good clean.
4. I wanted to test the water circulation so I replaced the inflow glass lily pipe with the old plastic one that came with the filter, what a difference, now I can see the plants moving.
5. Dosing the Excel Flourish every day (only recommended dosage) on top of CO2 injection system

I wil lkeep you posted with updates and I hope that I can get rid of BBA.


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## Jaap (13 Sep 2014)

Cristina said:


> Thank you all for your being so helpful. I did some changes to the aquarium:
> 1. I changed the CO2 and light settings - light 5 hours straight, CO2 8 hours straight (2h before the lights and 1h after the lights off)
> 2. I clean up the plants. Lots of leaves scraping and pruning.
> 3. Clean up the filter, it was not very dirty but it needed a good clean.
> ...


There is no need to have the co2 on after the lights are off...In fact if you have livestock this would be bad...since its of no use to either plants or anything else in the tank I would say it's a must to close co2 either on lights off or half an hour to an hour earlier.


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## Rob P (15 Sep 2014)

Cutting BBA out is the best way for sure, at least if you do that then you'll notice if it comes back and know it's tweaking that is required.

It's a shame on the tank size, a Siamese Algae Eater fish would probably work wonders but they do get big. I bought 3 at about 4/5cm for my 125 litre, and they scoffed all the BBA on some wood practically overnight, it was amazing! But when I moved them on a few weeks back they were already touching 12cm+ in size. Possible to put a small one in for a while with intentions of moving it on when it's grown a bit?


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