• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

My journal for dealing with BBA

sgdiscus

Member
Joined
3 Jun 2016
Messages
133
Location
Home
Hi all,

I have trawled through a fair bit of literature this hobby. Previously, when I am plague by BBA and when it overtakes my tank.. I will do a ground zero and reset the whole tank.

This time... I have decided not to do that. Mostly because resetting ny current tank will be painful.

So I decided to keep a journal and see how this fight goes.

1480840684867-1433515263.jpg


There are a few more other tuffs underneath that branch.

I have always maintained a weekly 50% water change and was on an EI regime until two weeks ago when I felt that the nitrate and phosphate at more than 80ppm and 5ppm respectively (based on Colombia test kit).

So I stopped dosing nitrate, potassium and phosphate for two weeks and up my lighting hours from 5 hours to 6 hours but reduced my LED intensity from 85% to 80%. Based on the KH/PH chart my CO2 should be around 20ppm (no change to that).

The result... BBA.

The battle plan:

1. Central idea. To get rid of BBA by going back to EI regime.

2. Execution Phase. On water change day, 50% WC and nuke the BBA with direct dosing of Seachem Flourish Excel. Maintain EI regime. No reduction in light. Maintain for 2 weeks and observe for new growth of BBA.

3. Contigency Plan.
a. Reduce lighting hours from 6 hours to 5 hours.
b. Lengthen the time of CO2 coming online from 30min to 1hour.
c. Reduce length of night light from current 10pm to 7am (1% LED) to 10pm to midnight.

4. Reorg. Record down conditions and observe.

Wish me luck!
 
Luck! I am about to restart my 100l due to BBA so will be watching with interest. :)
 
I just remembered a very important detail - I uprooted my dwarf hairgrass two weeks ago... one night AFTER my water change night. (face palm!) I think that is one of the root causes and stirred up the organics from the sand substrates.... I did put quite a lot of root fertilizer tablets in the sand substrate.

I spent almost one hour staring into my tank and I was relieved that that the BBA were only seen one particular piece of drift water. The funny thing is that the BBA were located near the water surface and there was certainly plenty of water movement in those areas that they were located.

So looks like I did too many things had happened at the same time.... cutting down on fert... increasing light duration.... uprooting plants.... just bad combo.
 
So looks like I did too many things had happened at the same time.... cutting down on fert... increasing light duration.... uprooting plants.... just bad combo.

I've always found it better for plants to have shorter period with higher intensity of light than the other way around. Low light with long duration does not work at all for me, even in a low tech.... Also, stirring the substrate means extra organics in the water column and BBA in my opinion just loves that.....Stopping the ferts may mean one of two things: it indeed affected the plants which in turn produced more organics due to plant deterioration or it had no effect as it was counteracted by extra organics and in turn ammonia that the plants can also feed on but so does the BBA, which probably was not so good at doing so with nitrate nitrogen as it takes more energy...I am just thinking aloud but from observing my tanks that's what I have come up with..

The funny thing is that the BBA were located near the water surface and there was certainly plenty of water movement in those areas that they were located.

BBA grows in fast flowing rivers in nature. It loves the flow...
 
I've always found it better for plants to have shorter period with higher intensity of light than the other way around. Low light with long duration does not work at all for me, even in a low tech.... Also, stirring the substrate means extra organics in the water column and BBA in my opinion just loves that.....Stopping the ferts may mean one of two things: it indeed affected the plants which in turn produced more organics due to plant deterioration or it had no effect as it was counteracted by extra organics and in turn ammonia that the plants can also feed on but so does the BBA, which probably was not so good at doing so with nitrate nitrogen as it takes more energy...I am just thinking aloud but from observing my tanks that's what I have come up with..


BBA grows in fast flowing rivers in nature. It loves the flow...

I agree with you.
 
Current Status:

1. Water conditions.

a. Gh - 9
b. Kh - 3
c. Ammonia - 0 ppm
d. Nitrite - < 0.5 ppm
e. Nitrate - 50 ppm
f. Phosphate - 5ppm
g. PH - 6.61
f. CO2 - about 22ppm (according the sticky on Tom Barr's website)

20161205_160910.jpg


20161205_164931.jpg


2. Enemy current status:

20161205_163708.jpg

Caption - Clumps of BBA underneath the driftwood just below the bucephalandras.

20161205_101823.jpg


Caption - Another look at the enemy during water change.

20161205_163737.jpg


Caption - 2nd location near the tip of the drift wood.

20161205_163809.jpg


Caption : 3rd location. Right at the top of the drift wood. This location is the only one directly underneath the light right by the outlet. So it has strong water current.

Own Forces.

20161205_102839.jpg


Execution.

20161205_101947.jpg


20161205_103920.jpg


a. 50% water changed done.
b. Used 30ml of excel and dosed directly at the enemy locations. Let enemies soaked in excel as waiting for the water to refill.
c. Lighting conditions changed to 2:30pm to 8:30pm at 90%. 6 hours. Intent is for the plants to get healthy and use them as allies against enemy.

Way Ahead.

a. Observe plant growth.
b. Observe green spot algae multiplication rate.
c. Observe effect of excel nuke on enemy at the 3 known locations.
d. Scout for new enemy locations. If found, repeat water change and nuke. Otherwise wait until next water change 7 days from now (next Mon or Tue)
e. Maintain EI regime.
 
If you can remove the algae'd item from the tank eg spray bars, rocks etc then bleach is equally effective at algae killing and considerably cheaper then liquid carbon. Just rinse well with water afterwards and put back in tank. Tends to turn BBA to white which is then scoffed by the fish.

If you are really worried about bleach rinse/wash the item in water with dechlorinator first, though to be honest any bleach that does make it into the tank will be diluted and react with any organics very quickly.
 
If you can remove the algae'd item from the tank eg spray bars, rocks etc then bleach is equally effective at algae killing and considerably cheaper then liquid carbon. Just rinse well with water afterwards and put back in tank. Tends to turn BBA to white which is then scoffed by the fish.

If you are really worried about bleach rinse/wash the item in water with dechlorinator first, though to be honest any bleach that does make it into the tank will be diluted and react with any organics very quickly.

Will give that a go in my next water change if the primary plan don't work. Thanks!
 
I'm just beating the dreaded bba.
Havnt seen much new growth been dosing mine with easycarbo and it's all turning a nice pink colour.
 
I cant seem to beat mine but i have come to a temporary truce. It doesnt grow on my plants. Only my bonsai trees.

It gives a really nice aged look. As if a weird fungus was growing on it. I dont mind it. But i think when i put fish and shrimp back in the tank again it will dose some diy excel and see happens

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
 
I cant seem to beat mine but i have come to a temporary truce. It doesnt grow on my plants. Only my bonsai trees.

It gives a really nice aged look. As if a weird fungus was growing on it. I dont mind it. But i think when i put fish and shrimp back in the tank again it will dose some diy excel and see happens

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Good luck! One of the things I am always paranoid about is when shrimps go straight into the locations where I dosed the excel.
 
There was a time I dosed 5x the recommended amount of excel in a tank filled with shrimp. Didn't do a thing to then.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
 
There was a time I dosed 5x the recommended amount of excel in a tank filled with shrimp. Didn't do a thing to then.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

If you're talking about cherry shrimp, mine are like snails. They survive uncycled tiny bowls on the window sill full of melting plants and temperatures of 12C during winter.....But they surely do not do best at these conditions...:)
 
Just did my weekly water change. I did not observe new enemy locations. Those BBA in the old locations were directly underneath the driftwood and the glare from the lights prevented me from assessing if the BBA were dead or a lush black colour.

But I was able to pick them off easily using my fingers... so I would think they were killed by excel.

Moving forward... I will continue with the water change and keep organics (ie the dead leaves) down as low as possible.

If I spot new BBA growth... I would do the next drastic step as suggested by many here... take out the drift woods or whatever they were attached to and perform a total cleanse.

20161212_200643.jpg


Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk
 
Ooooh you've got a Lily about to flower. :)
Sorry sanj, I would love to claim that flower... but I bought the lily already with the flower bud. I chose it because I wanted the healthiest possible plant to grow in my tank.

Unfortunately. .. as expected the flower bud rotted and I had to trim it during the water change.

I am definitely looking forward to it's next bloom. Finger cross that it will do well in my tank!

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk
 
Have you performed a blackout?
No. I did reduce lighting hours from 6 to 5hrs. But that is to control GSA.

I did increase aeration in my sump tank to facilitate breakdown of organics. I am subscribed to the hypothesis that BBA is due to excess organics. To this end, I also reduced feedings. I believed overfeeding could be a cause as well.

So in my mind, blacking out and weakening the plants is not on the cards for now.


Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk
 
No. I did reduce lighting hours from 6 to 5hrs. But that is to control GSA.

I did increase aeration in my sump tank to facilitate breakdown of organics. I am subscribed to the hypothesis that BBA is due to excess organics.

I think you're probably right, if you did a blackout though, it might help you kill it off, won't treat the problem necessarily but it could get rid of some of the symptom.
 
Water change day. I have not seen any new BBA growth. BBA in the current locations are not growing and comes off easily. I think they were totally nuked by the excel.

I feel comfortable enough to declare that this battle is won for now.

Reorg Phase. Going to maintain the water change regime. I have also increase aeration in the sump tank to enhance the breakdown of waste organics.
 

Attachments

  • 20161219_194628.jpg
    20161219_194628.jpg
    1.1 MB · Views: 138
Back
Top