BBA on substrate between glosso...

[Ben C]

Afternoon all,

At the moment, the ONLY algae I have any sort of issue with is BBA which is forming ugly pom-poms on the substrate.. Its only in the lower layers of my tank, so I am assuming this is a circulation issue at those lower levels.

The tank is 54l and filtered by an Eheim 2213, giving me a turnover of about 9x. I'm currently only using the standard green outlet pipe, although lily pipes are on the mid-term shopping list.

Does anyone have any clever ways to increase circulation at those lower levels with the set up I have? I cannot easily lower the outlet pipe in the tank, given the design of it.

Also, any clever ways to remove it without removing my entire glosso carpet?

The rest of the tank is fine and healthy (happy with CO2 levels, good plant health etc.) so if I crack this, I could be algae free...!

Many thanks all,

Ben

 

[wet]

This is cheating, I guess, but use a turkey baster or syringe (you do not need the needle) and squirt some Glut or Excel down there for a couple weeks. Easy BBA removal, target application, low pain. Protip: if you stick a trace mix into the Excel (just use a small cup to make a small dose), you can more easily see the flow out of the syringe.

If you are not aware, you can pick up boxes of syringes online for pretty cheap or at any drug store/pharmacy.

But for circulation, one of the little wavemaker powerheads can do wonders. A nano sized one helps push water really good around my 40 gallon US tank. But I can see how it would be unattractive in such a little tank, and frankly if I were you I would try the Excel/Glut option above first. It's not really cheating

 

[tim]

Hi Ben, have you considered a spray bar along the back wall of the tank, this can improve flow distribution at substrate. As stated above spot dosing liquid carbon onto the bba with the filter off should kill it you can then use some 9/12 filter hose to syphon it out.

 

[BigTom]

Yeah, a spraybar aimed at the front glass should help flow considerably and glass/ceramic ones look pretty ace IMO, but manual removal/kill with liquid carbon will be necessary for getting rid of what's already there.

 

[Ben C]

Thanks for this, chaps. I ended up removing the glosso and cleaning out the BBA manually. I'll look into a glass spraybar to increase circulation to prevent it coming back.
Thanks for the help.