My journal for dealing with BBA

[bobiciupe]

Light intensity or water chanages will have nothing to do with the BBA. BBA, as other black algae, like staghorn, are directly the consequences of bad co2 management. This involves 2 things: too little co2 level or bad distribution in water mass. I used to have the same problem as you have, til i took out the ph controler, BBA went away. The controler reading is very much influenced by the magnetic field of the lights, it means that you can not have a proper reading.

 

[sgdiscus]

Light intensity or water chanages will have nothing to do with the BBA. BBA, as other black algae, like staghorn, are directly the consequences of bad co2 management. This involves 2 things: too little co2 level or bad distribution in water mass. I used to have the same problem as you have, til i took out the ph controler, BBA went away. The controler reading is very much influenced by the magnetic field of the lights, it means that you can not have a proper reading.

Thanks for sharing.

When you mentioned that the BBA goes away after you removed the pH controller - did you also link your CO2 to the pH controller? And the pH controller was giving varied CO2 level throughout the day?

I don't have a pH controller. I used a pH pen instead. The pH pen is not controlling the CO2. I tried the pH pen in a few locations in my tank and sump. I observed that the readings in my sump and my tank are the same when the CO2 are on and when the CO2 are off. It does take 'about' an hour longer for the pH pen to reach the same reading in the sump vis-a-vis the tank when CO2 are on. My CO2 is injected into an inline atomiser and fed directly into the outflow of the pump as it goes back into my main tank. So the sump is the last place for the CO2 to reach.

At the moment, I am subscribed to the theory that BBA belongs to a family of bacteria that thrives when organics are plentiful in the water. According to the approaches for waste treatment, increasing oxygen is important to help other beneficial organisms breakdown organics. Hence areas with slow or no flow can result in BBA due to low oxygen level.

In planted tanks, I can see your point that slow flow or no flow of CO2 can cause BBA especially if those areas are planted. This could possibly lead to plants not being able to photosynthesis and hence poor health and breaking down contributing more organic wastes.

<edited for grammar>

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[bobiciupe]

I quite struggled in the past in creating such beautiful and healthy tanks that i used to see over the internet in international contests, since 1 year ago when i paied a visit to the guys from Green Aqua in Budapest and they told me some.... i dont know how to call them: rules, principles of being able to keep a healthy and green tank. Those rules are:

1. Filtration: the filter is the heart of the aquarium. Buy the biggest and the strongest filter you can aford. i use 3 eheim filters(2080, 2078, 2073) for my 380 litres tank filled with 22 litres of seachem matrix and 1 liter of seachem puringen equiped with aquarebels set of lily pipes to get the same flow over the tank, in order to avoid the death spots where the water dosent move
2. CO2 runs for about 8 hours/day. it start 1 hour before the light and shuts down 1 hour before the light. i dont know how many bubbles/sec, but many, anyways
3. water changes- i perform 50% water change per week, every sunday morning.
4. flow- i have 13x per hour flow, acording to filter producer (eheim)
5. low light- i use 2*54wati T5 bulbs Giesemann Midday+Aquaflora 7 hours/day
6. low temp- i dont have any heating sistem, water has room temperature, around 21 celsius

Since I am doing this i dont have any kind of problems regarding any kind of algae

 

[sgdiscus]

@bobiciupe

Wow.. nice filtration setup! Good sharing.

I am also a believer of over-filtration. I have a friend who also used two external ehiem canisters for his 3 feet planted tank.

I have since added more airstones and one more internal filter into my sump tank (about 3 feet) to further improve the ability to breakdown waste organics.

My water temperature is higher - between 25 to 28 °C.

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[ahjoe0digi]

My canister filter is 650/hr, for my 15 G long tank, 50%water change. Hours of co2 before light on, light on for 8 hours. Relatively Medium light, plant food and also ROOM TEMPERATURE IN TROPICS, around 29 degree. Algae present but manageable....still punching my calculator to set aside some money for EXPENSIVE chiller. Fan not effective due to high humidity.

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[bobiciupe]

My water temperature is higher - between 25 to 28 °C.

i think it is too high. under the light plant starts to rot and roting process brings more amonia in to the water and increses the chance of getting algae. the rotting increses along side water temperature.

 

[sgdiscus]

i think it is too high. under the light plant starts to rot and roting process brings more amonia in to the water and increses the chance of getting algae. the rotting increses along side water temperature.

I agree that 28°c not ideal. I did deliberately choose easy plants like ferns, nana and swords. Although I think buce may struggle but already too late. So I just have to monitor and be more vigilant during water change and cleaning of substrates. So far no more new BBA growth.

Also I am going away for vacation. Going to reduced the lighting intensity and duration. Let's hope I have done enough to keep BBA at bay!



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[ahjoe0digi]

I agree that 28°c not ideal. I did deliberately choose easy plants like ferns, nana and swords. Although I think buce may struggle but already too late. So I just have to monitor and be more vigilant during water change and cleaning of substrates. So far no more new BBA growth.

Also I am going away for vacation. Going to reduced the lighting intensity and duration. Let's hope I have done enough to keep BBA at bay!



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Actually most plant can thrive under higher temperature. My tank maintain at 28 to 29. Although there are some algae, but most algae are grow on headscape instead of plants. However algae on headscape really annoying



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[bobiciupe]

https://www.aquasabi.com/aquascaping-wiki/algae/bba-black-beard-algae

 

[sgdiscus]

https://www.aquasabi.com/aquascaping-wiki/algae/bba-black-beard-algae

@bobiciupe

Thank you for sharing! I think I mixed up the blue green algae (cyanobacteria) with the black beard algae.

I have also looked it up on other sources. They also indicate that BBA is a form of red algae. Thank you for the correction!

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[limz_777]

I quite struggled in the past in creating such beautiful and healthy tanks that i used to see over the internet in international contests, since 1 year ago when i paied a visit to the guys from Green Aqua in Budapest and they told me some.... i dont know how to call them: rules, principles of being able to keep a healthy and green tank. Those rules are:

1. Filtration: the filter is the heart of the aquarium. Buy the biggest and the strongest filter you can aford. i use 3 eheim filters(2080, 2078, 2073) for my 380 litres tank filled with 22 litres of seachem matrix and 1 liter of seachem puringen equiped with aquarebels set of lily pipes to get the same flow over the tank, in order to avoid the death spots where the water dosent move
2. CO2 runs for about 8 hours/day. it start 1 hour before the light and shuts down 1 hour before the light. i dont know how many bubbles/sec, but many, anyways
3. water changes- i perform 50% water change per week, every sunday morning.
4. flow- i have 13x per hour flow, acording to filter producer (eheim)
5. low light- i use 2*54wati T5 bulbs Giesemann Midday+Aquaflora 7 hours/day
6. low temp- i dont have any heating sistem, water has room temperature, around 21 celsius

Since I am doing this i dont have any kind of problems regarding any kind of algae

is your tank still running ? actually i am more interested where bba comes from , the theory that keeping the plants healthy ,good flow , good co2 will keep algae at bay is used by everyone including myself , yet nobody really test it out , will introducing a bba turf into a algae free high tech tank , would the optimum balance in the tank kill bba ?

 

[sgdiscus]

is your tank still running ? actually i am more interested where bba comes from , the theory that keeping the plants healthy ,good flow , good co2 will keep algae at bay is used by everyone including myself , yet nobody really test it out , will introducing a bba turf into a algae free high tech tank , would the optimum balance in the tank kill bba ?

@limz_777, are you going to test this out? I would be interested to find out too.

My hypothesis is that when a tuff of BBA is introduced (via driftwood or plant) into an optimally balanced tank, it will not kill off the BBA. This is because there will also be organic wastes in the tank regardless of how optimal it will be. The organic wastes should be able provide nutrients to the introduced BBA for it to sustain. While it may not propagate but I think it is tough enough to survive. For my own fight, the killing blow to existing BBA in my tank is the dosing of excel. Changing of water, proper fertilization, CO2 etc are just means to keep the plants healthy and to keep the organic wastes to a minimal so as to prevent an outbreak of BBA.

A potential way to try this out is to set up as follows:

a. 2 jars/tanks with distilled water each with a tuff of BBA. Put 1 in a lighted place and another in a pitch black place.
b. 2 jars/tanks with tap water each with a tuff of BBA. Put 1 in a lighted place and another in a pitch black place.
c. 2 jars/tanks with your aquarium water each with a tuff of BBA. Put 1 in a lighted place and another in a pitch black place.

Unfortunately, I don't think I have the commitment to go through with this test! 🙂)

 

[sciencefiction]

will introducing a bba turf into a algae free high tech tank , would the optimum balance in the tank kill bba ?

I've introduced BBA ridden plants from one tank to an algae free low tech tanks twice and the BBA died pretty fast. It does have something to do with the overall balance but it is not to say the BBA will die each time in a more balanced tank. It probably depends on something we don't know. This is fairly easy to test, especially for anyone that has kept multiple tanks because although BBA is common, it does seem to need certain conditions and doesn't infest each tank.

 

[sgdiscus]

I've introduced BBA ridden plants from one tank to an algae free low tech tanks twice and the BBA died pretty fast. It does have something to do with the overall balance but it is not to say the BBA will die each time in a more balanced tank. It probably depends on something we don't know. This is fairly easy to test, especially for anyone that has kept multiple tanks because although BBA is common, it does seem to need certain conditions and doesn't infest each tank.

Cool! Have you observed the same when transferring to a high-tech tank?

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[limz_777]

@limz_777, are you going to test this out? I would be interested to find out too.

My hypothesis is that when a tuff of BBA is introduced (via driftwood or plant) into an optimally balanced tank, it will not kill off the BBA. This is because there will also be organic wastes in the tank regardless of how optimal it will be. The organic wastes should be able provide nutrients to the introduced BBA for it to sustain. While it may not propagate but I think it is tough enough to survive. For my own fight, the killing blow to existing BBA in my tank is the dosing of excel. Changing of water, proper fertilization, CO2 etc are just means to keep the plants healthy and to keep the organic wastes to a minimal so as to prevent an outbreak of BBA.

A potential way to try this out is to set up as follows:

a. 2 jars/tanks with distilled water each with a tuff of BBA. Put 1 in a lighted place and another in a pitch black place.
b. 2 jars/tanks with tap water each with a tuff of BBA. Put 1 in a lighted place and another in a pitch black place.
c. 2 jars/tanks with your aquarium water each with a tuff of BBA. Put 1 in a lighted place and another in a pitch black place.

Unfortunately, I don't think I have the commitment to go through with this test! 🙂)

unfortunately i not running a high tech at the moment , but i did have a bba ridden main stone before which i left in a non running tank for 3-4 weeks with ambient lighting ,not pitch black , still bba didnt died off , which suggest to me that blackout doesnt work well for bba , only spot treatment with algaecides , further search of bba which everyone label as black beard algae actually belong to the genus Audouinella , which has over 200 -300 sub species

 

[bobiciupe]

is your tank still running ? actually i am more interested where bba comes from , the theory that keeping the plants healthy ,good flow , good co2 will keep algae at bay is used by everyone including myself , yet nobody really test it out , will introducing a bba turf into a algae free high tech tank , would the optimum balance in the tank kill bba ?

Yes limz_777, my tank is still runnig and it;s runnig very well i think. this is the clearest and algae free tank i ever had. in my 10 years aquascaping experience i discover that: CO2 is involved in BBA, as I said before, but i never experienced what you said to introduce BBA in a established tank to see what will happend. i runaway as fast as i could from BBA i dont want to put by force in my aquarium only to make experience.