# BGA question



## tennis4you (2 Sep 2008)

My 125 gallon tank has a decent amount of bga on a moderately planted tank.  I have dosed excel for 3 days straight and did a little bit of spot treating but there is so much of it that it would take all day to spot treat.  Would normally dosing bga with excel generally do some damage to the bga?

I recently got CO2 injected into the tank so I finally have that going for me now, but I am still battling the bga from when I was a low tech tank.  

Just wondering how I should dose with excel in a tank this size and generally how long I should wait to see some progress...

Thanks!!!


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## ceg4048 (2 Sep 2008)

Well, BGA is not a CO2 related algae. It is related to either low nitrates or ammonia production due to poor maintenance of filters and/or poor flow. BGA can occur just as easily in a high tech tank as a low tech one. Since BGA is a bacteria that can photosynthesize it loves CO2 just as much as your plants do so just adding CO2 won't make it go away. It's not really clear just exactly how much NO3 you are dosing or what level of filtration this tank has so, it's unclear if your previous low tech techniques have carried over. The best bet for ridding the tank of BGA, assuming that you have solved the root cause(s), is to do a blackout. I'll shamelessly plagiarize the procedure from JamesC's algae guide:

Clean out as much of the algae as you can and do a 30 to 50% water change. If your nitrates are low then add some potassium nitrate to get levels to 20ppm. Remove CO2 and add an airstone. Turn off lights and cover the whole tank so no light can enter. Leave it for 3 to 4 days. No peeking and no feeding - fish will be fine without food for this period. After 3 to 4 days remove the covers and do a 30 - 50% water change. Remove airstone and start CO2. You will need to dose nitrates to keep them dropping too low again. Make sure your substrate and filter doesn't become too clogged up with mulm and also make sure you have good water circulation around the whole tank.
Another option is to treat with Maracyn which is an anti-biotic. Seems to work well but may affect the biological filter.

Cheers,


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## tennis4you (2 Sep 2008)

Shoot, so I am just now realizing that there is a BBA algae and a BGA algae?  You diagnosed the stuff I have as BBA 2 weeks ago in a post.  I thought I was just seeing varying ways to say it, but it looks as if it is two different algae types.  Sorry about that!  So with that said, what changes knowing it is BBA? 

My bad!


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## aaronnorth (2 Sep 2008)

*B*lue *G*reen *A*lgae is blue, green and slimy, covers everywhere and is hard to eradicate.

*B*lack *B*rush *A*lgae is small black hairs that form little clumps,

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm


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## ceg4048 (2 Sep 2008)

tennis4you said:
			
		

> Shoot, so I am just now realizing that there is a BBA algae and a BGA algae?  You diagnosed the stuff I have as BBA 2 weeks ago in a post.  I thought I was just seeing varying ways to say it, but it looks as if it is two different algae types.  Sorry about that!  So with that said, what changes knowing it is BBA?
> 
> My bad!



Err...Yes, totally different species mate. Have a look at James' guide that Aaron gave the link to. So if we are talking about Black Brush then OK, I'm now tuned into the proper frequency.  

But let's think about this some more. BBA is brutal because although it is _caused_ by poor CO2, correcting the CO2 does not automatically make this algae go away since it likes CO2 as well. Correcting the CO2 deficiency only stops your plants from creating the conditions under which BBA germinates, but Pandora has been let out of the box.  

Have you seen the movie "Doom"? Well if you have a "decent amount" of BBA then that's what's playing in your 125 gallon tank and you are going to require the assistance of R.R.C Special Ops featuring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to clear the monsters out using The Big Force Gun (BFG). If spot treatment is impractical then what you can try is to overdose the Excel for a while. A daily 2X or even 3X overdose of Excel or Easycarbo for a few weeks has been known to clear it up but you should also do a lot of manual removal of infected leaves and do multiple _massive_ water changes per week. Dwayne suggests that you do not stop the treatment until "...everything on this planet is dead..."

Serious bouts with BBA is responsible for turning honest people into CO2 junkies...  

Cheers,


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## tennis4you (3 Sep 2008)

Are you sure "BFG" stand for Big Force Gun?  I always had that "F" as something else.    I use to be a huge Quake 2 junkie, and according to online ranking systems, I managed to be #1 in the world for quite a while.  Had to go cold turkey just to quit.  But man I loved that game!!!  But enough tooting my own horn, let's talk about my struggles instead.  According to online ranking systems I am #578969 in plant care for tanks, but I am raising that number daily by constant research.  

I think I need something bigger to do some spot treatment, like a friggin turkey baster or something.  Maybe a BFTB (Big Friggin Turkey Baster).  That would make spot treatment far easier.  I have these smaller serenges (ugh, sp?) and they do not hold much at all and make it hard to get much excel on the leaves.  I will remove any leaf that looks like it has had enough.  Which will not be hard, I have had my fair share of leaves dying for a while on various plants due to my previous (ha, previous...) lack of understanding of what I need to do for the plants.  

I assume I am safe to keep using the PMDD and lights on for 8.5 hours per day with the CO2 on that long as well?

What kind of water changes are we talking about here?  I figured with the Excel I am dosing with I would be wise to leave the water in the tank and not change it, but it seems as if water changes might be good?

Thanks for the help.  I am trying!


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## Mark Evans (3 Sep 2008)

ceg4048 said:
			
		

> ave you seen the movie "Doom"? Well if you have a "decent amount" of BBA then that's what's playing in your 125 gallon tank and you are going to require the assistance of R.R.C Special Ops featuring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to clear the monsters out using The Big Force Gun (BFG).



 genius!


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## ceg4048 (3 Sep 2008)

Wow, a #1 ranking should have gotten you a promotional deal like that guy John Fata1ity. Yes the F does stand for something else but as we are rated G one has to use restraint. Remember the scene where he finally gained access to the room where the gun was located and circled it in astonishment with the dark synth/guitar chords playing in the soundtrack? Cinema doesn't get any cooler than that... 8) 

If you want an apparatus with more "kick" than a syringe then consider using a spray bottle such as an old Windex bottle (clean it out of course). Then pour the Excel in and fire away. You can adjust the nozzle for wide field bombardment or for narrow field surgical fire. Do this in concert with the water change. Siphon out as much water as you can (each liter of tank water can hold thousands of algal spores so the more you remove the better) and then do the spot treatment. I would still dose the water column with Excel even after spot treatment. Excel only lasts for 24 hours or so then it biodegrades.

It's a critical necessity to continue dosing and injecting CO2. That requirement will never go away. I mean, that's like asking do I need to continue eating while I'm being treated for illness in the hospital. Yeah, the plants need to be fed otherwise you'll have more problems than you solve.

Cheers,


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## tennis4you (3 Sep 2008)

Awesome, you guys rock, thanks!!!


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