Is this BBA

[Barbara Turner]

I'm spotted a few of these little buds on the end of leaves. There hard to clean of and surprisingly robust, not your normal soft algae.

With forethought I should have taken the photo before scraping it off the leaf.

 

[Hendre]

Can't really see but if it's hairy with a very "sticky" or hard to remove base then it's probably BBA

 

[Barbara Turner]

It's definitely hard to remove.. I was surprised it was still intact after I scrapped it off.
If anymore turns up I'll get some better photos.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I'm spotted a few of these little buds on the end of leaves.

Definitely look like <"Red Algae">, so either BBA (Audouinella) or <"Staghorn"> (Compsopogon coeruleus).

cheers Darrel

 

[Barbara Turner]

Here's a few more photos it, its still multiplying .
Looks like staghorn rather than BBA, I just thought that stag horn was normally white in colour.

I've dropped my main light down to 4 hours a day.
I'll dose glut daily
I've increased my co2
Is it worth doing water changes twice a week?

I've just put some in a bowl with a few drops of glut to check that it kills it off..


Anything else worth doing, I would rather hit it hard at the start before it takes over, I would rather not have to keep trimming my Crinum calamistratum its slow enough growing anyway.

 

[Zeus.]

IMO staghorn.

Give tank BIG clean out turkey blaster on all plants and substrate get as much detritus out as possible.
Double WC
Clean filter out to remove detritus and maximise output.
Clean all hoses/pipes.
Check CO2 pH profile.
Trim plants where flow is being restricted.
Remove/trim affected plants/leaves if bad
Spot dose LC
Increase tank turnover!

 

[Geoffrey Rea]

Anything else worth doing, I would rather hit it hard at the start before it takes over, I would rather not have to keep trimming my Crinum calamistratum its slow enough growing anyway.

Throwing in my two cents...


If you’re using tap water try and do water changes before or after the photo period. Tap water is rammed with Co2 as I’m sure you’re aware and fluctuates levels in the tank benefiting both staghorn or BBA before it will benefit your plants. Algae adapts and takes advantage of changes in the environment more rapidly than plants.

Recently been playing around with two tanks suffering similar algae issues (staghorn and BBA) on slow growers. Beyond the regular weekly maintenance all I did was change a basket of media every two days or so until all media was replenished. Algae died back. There’s several potential explanations to this, non of them provable though, just speculation, so will leave it out instead of generalising to your specific circumstances. Important to resolve the source(s) of the issue.

If you have SAE they’ll eat it as it fades. If not then dosing glut or spot dosing will kill it off then cherries and Amano’s will eat it as a food source if you stop feeding your tank (and presuming you have shrimp). If going the glut route I personally dose after the photo period during lights out and double dose 2% glut so 4ml per 100 litres of tank water per day for 10 days or until you get your result.

 

[Barbara Turner]

Hey all

I'm been doing some testing with the staghorn algae


I got 5 plastic cups each with 200ml of Aquarium water (EI ferts)
Each of these I placed a small sample of staghorn algae and a sample of infected plant.

1 - control (just aquarium water)
very little change as expected.

2- high light (20w led 10cm away)
Staghorn has tripled in size.

3- 0.5ml of hydrogen peroxide added (6%)
Staghorn and leaf dead and white

4 - 0.5ml of glut (excel strength)
Staghorn dead- leaf yellowed but might recover

5- 5 days total darkness
Very little change, leaf not looking the best.



Only real surprise how a 5 day blackout made very little difference.

I want to try a 5 minute dip in a 1/3 glut 2/3 water followed by returning to normal aquarium water. Possibly try similar with peroxide.

Ps there appears to be less in my tank, I still have a infected Crinum calamistratum and some on balansae, as both are very slow growing I'm thinking about pulling them up and repeating a 5 minute dip. I'm going to try with a syringe full of glut but I'm not convinced.

I've also cleaned out my filter and doing 2 x 70% water changes a week.

 

[Luciën]

I'm been doing some testing with the staghorn algae

Interesting! So glut works best for staghorn and darkness not al all..

 

[Barbara Turner]

Yes, darkness didn't touch the staghorn, saying that the high light did make it grow like crazy.

Interesting! So glut works best for staghorn and darkness not al all..

The 6% peroxide actually killed the staghorn first but It did go onto also bleach and kill the plant.