Eradicating BBA

Hi:

I'm fed up with my Black Beard Algae. We've had it for the last several
years, but never had it before that. Obviously it came in on some plants or
fish. I've tried all the usual things like SAEs etc. and water control, but
nothing gets rid of it.

Recently I just setup a new 100G tank with brand new gravel and new water.
There was no phosphate in the water at all. Yet the BBA on the plants which
were put in the tank still grew. From what else I read, and from my
experience, any water that will grow plants will grow BBA. You cannot get
rid of it with water control.

So, I have come to the decision that killing it all in the entire tank
system is the only real solution. From what I read either Chlorine or
Copper will do it. Chlorine seems to work much faster. What I plan to do
is:

- Remove all the fish from the tank
- Poor in 5G of Chlorox Bleach (1/20).
- Mix it up and let it circulate in the tank for 5 minutes.
- Drain the tank, refill with water, drain tank, and refill again.
- Put in anti-Chlorine.
- Put fish back in.

I know it will kill my bio in the filters, but that is easy to regrow. I
may loose some of the plants, but I don't care if the BBA is gone forever.
After that I will rinse all plants in Chlorine before putting anything new
in.

Any other suggestions or advice?

Thanks, Chris.

Hi Chris,

You have my sympathy. I know how it feels to have an algae problem. It may
make one consider giving up this hobby at times. If I remember correctly
when I had BBA I purchased 3 SAE's. They didn't do much with the older BBA
growth. That needed to be physically removed. However they will not let new
BBA grow any more.

What you are considering should work and I don't think it will kill your
plants. If I'd had another aquarium to keep my fish in for some time I would
had considered it myself, too.

Let us posted of your progress and good luck.

--
Regards,
Marvin Hlavac
Toronto, Canada




I'm fed up with my Black Beard Algae. We've had it for the last several
years, but never had it before that. Obviously it came in on some plants
or
fish. I've tried all the usual things like SAEs etc. and water control,
but
nothing gets rid of it.

Recently I just setup a new 100G tank with brand new gravel and new water.
There was no phosphate in the water at all. Yet the BBA on the plants
which
were put in the tank still grew. From what else I read, and from my
experience, any water that will grow plants will grow BBA. You cannot get
rid of it with water control.

So, I have come to the decision that killing it all in the entire tank
system is the only real solution. From what I read either Chlorine or
Copper will do it. Chlorine seems to work much faster. What I plan to do
is:

- Remove all the fish from the tank
- Poor in 5G of Chlorox Bleach (1/20).
- Mix it up and let it circulate in the tank for 5 minutes.
- Drain the tank, refill with water, drain tank, and refill again.
- Put in anti-Chlorine.
- Put fish back in.

I know it will kill my bio in the filters, but that is easy to regrow. I
may loose some of the plants, but I don't care if the BBA is gone forever.
After that I will rinse all plants in Chlorine before putting anything new
in.

Any other suggestions or advice?

Thanks, Chris.

Hi Chris

You need to check your co2. There's not enough.
Instead of going the chemical nuking route, just do a 3 day blackout. Get
your lighting, co2 and nutrients back up and manually remove as much of the
stuff as you can.

--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**


"Chris_S" wrote in message
...
Hi:

I'm fed up with my Black Beard Algae. We've had it for the last several
years, but never had it before that. Obviously it came in on some plants
or
fish. I've tried all the usual things like SAEs etc. and water control,
but
nothing gets rid of it.

Recently I just setup a new 100G tank with brand new gravel and new water.
There was no phosphate in the water at all. Yet the BBA on the plants
which
were put in the tank still grew. From what else I read, and from my
experience, any water that will grow plants will grow BBA. You cannot get
rid of it with water control.

So, I have come to the decision that killing it all in the entire tank
system is the only real solution. From what I read either Chlorine or
Copper will do it. Chlorine seems to work much faster. What I plan to do
is:

- Remove all the fish from the tank
- Poor in 5G of Chlorox Bleach (1/20).
- Mix it up and let it circulate in the tank for 5 minutes.
- Drain the tank, refill with water, drain tank, and refill again.
- Put in anti-Chlorine.
- Put fish back in.

I know it will kill my bio in the filters, but that is easy to regrow. I
may loose some of the plants, but I don't care if the BBA is gone forever.
After that I will rinse all plants in Chlorine before putting anything new
in.

Any other suggestions or advice?

Thanks, Chris.

Hi:

I've tried running the CO2 from 5PPM to 30PPM. You're right having it
higher and more plant growth helps, but the BBA still does not go away. It
just slows down. I have no problem with any other kind of algae. Just BBA.

Blackout will have no effect. The doc in the Krib and elsewhere says same
thing. BBA will just go dormant. People have taken out rocks with BBA on
them, let them dry in air 6 months, then put them back in water, and the BBA
starts right back where it left off. This stuff is HARD to kill. The only
thing that kills it is Chlorine or Copper Sulphate. Even Copper takes 3-5
days to kill it. Chlorine only takes minutes.

Water control can help or make things worse, but it will never get rid of
it. You could put a rock with BBA in distilled water and the BBA will not
die. Probably just go into hibernation and come back when there are
nutrients around.

The only way I see to kill BBA without killing the plants is Chlorine or
Copper. I've tried everything else. It's time to sterilize the tank.

I'm just kicking myself that I did not sterilize the plants and rocks in
Chlorine when I set this new tank up 2 months ago. I had the perfect
opportunity then to start off with a clean tank. That would have been the
perfect time to get rid of this BBA. Now I see no choice but the hard way.

Thanks, Chris.




"Happy'Cam'per" wrote in message
...
Hi Chris

You need to check your co2. There's not enough.
Instead of going the chemical nuking route, just do a 3 day blackout. Get
your lighting, co2 and nutrients back up and manually remove as much of
the
stuff as you can.

--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**


"Chris_S" wrote in message
...
Hi:

I'm fed up with my Black Beard Algae. We've had it for the last several
years, but never had it before that. Obviously it came in on some
plants
or
fish. I've tried all the usual things like SAEs etc. and water control,
but
nothing gets rid of it.

Recently I just setup a new 100G tank with brand new gravel and new
water.
There was no phosphate in the water at all. Yet the BBA on the plants
which
were put in the tank still grew. From what else I read, and from my
experience, any water that will grow plants will grow BBA. You cannot
get
rid of it with water control.

So, I have come to the decision that killing it all in the entire tank
system is the only real solution. From what I read either Chlorine or
Copper will do it. Chlorine seems to work much faster. What I plan to
do
is:

- Remove all the fish from the tank
- Poor in 5G of Chlorox Bleach (1/20).
- Mix it up and let it circulate in the tank for 5 minutes.
- Drain the tank, refill with water, drain tank, and refill again.
- Put in anti-Chlorine.
- Put fish back in.

I know it will kill my bio in the filters, but that is easy to regrow.
I
may loose some of the plants, but I don't care if the BBA is gone
forever.
After that I will rinse all plants in Chlorine before putting anything
new
in.

Any other suggestions or advice?

Thanks, Chris.

On Mon, 15 Mar 2004 00:26:18 GMT, "Chris_S" wrote:

Hi:

I'm fed up with my Black Beard Algae. We've had it for the last several
years, but never had it before that. Obviously it came in on some plants or
fish. I've tried all the usual things like SAEs etc. and water control, but
nothing gets rid of it.

Recently I just setup a new 100G tank with brand new gravel and new water.
There was no phosphate in the water at all. Yet the BBA on the plants which
were put in the tank still grew. From what else I read, and from my
experience, any water that will grow plants will grow BBA. You cannot get
rid of it with water control.

So, I have come to the decision that killing it all in the entire tank
system is the only real solution. From what I read either Chlorine or
Copper will do it. Chlorine seems to work much faster. What I plan to do
is:

- Remove all the fish from the tank
- Poor in 5G of Chlorox Bleach (1/20).
- Mix it up and let it circulate in the tank for 5 minutes.
- Drain the tank, refill with water, drain tank, and refill again.
- Put in anti-Chlorine.
- Put fish back in.

I know it will kill my bio in the filters, but that is easy to regrow. I
may loose some of the plants, but I don't care if the BBA is gone forever.
After that I will rinse all plants in Chlorine before putting anything new
in.

Any other suggestions or advice?

Thanks, Chris.



I am surprised you moved plants with BBA into the new tank. Part of
my getting rid of the stuff was to remove all plants that showed BBA
growth. I also reduced the number of hours the lights are on. A
bought some Siamese Algae Eaters and cut back on the food. I also
removed any gravel that had BBA on it. I did get rid of the stuff and
it has been over 6 months since the last went away.

"Chris_S" wrote in message
...
Hi:

I'm fed up with my Black Beard Algae. We've had it for the last several
years, but never had it before that. Obviously it came in on some plants or
fish. I've tried all the usual things like SAEs etc. and water control, but
nothing gets rid of it.

I recently saw that Azoo now market a Brush Algae Killer. It comes
in a very small bottle (maybe 10ml) and, apparently, a few drops are
sufficient for a 50 gallon tank. Does anyone have any experience with it?

Thanks,

Michi.

--
Michi Henning Ph: +61 4 1118-2700
ZeroC, Inc. http://www.zeroc.com

I recently saw that Azoo now market a Brush Algae Killer. It comes
in a very small bottle (maybe 10ml) and, apparently, a few drops are
sufficient for a 50 gallon tank. Does anyone have any experience with it?

WOW! Now that's real news. I found the manfs product info:

http://www.azoo.com.tw/azoo_en/modul...eview&bkid=309

It's AZOO product number AZ17086. I found another user post somewhere and
they said it got rid of their BBA in 14 days. If true, that is very good
news indeed.

The only fish stores that seem to have it are outside the US. Have not
found it yet in any of the US websites.

It's certainly worth a try if I can get some.

Thanks for the info!!!

Chris.

"Chris_S" wrote in message
...

WOW! Now that's real news. I found the manfs product info:

http://www.azoo.com.tw/azoo_en/modul...eview&bkid=309

It's AZOO product number AZ17086. I found another user post somewhere and
they said it got rid of their BBA in 14 days. If true, that is very good
news indeed.

The only fish stores that seem to have it are outside the US. Have not
found it yet in any of the US websites.

It's certainly worth a try if I can get some.

Thanks for the info!!!

Well, I've never tried it, so I'm looking for people with first-hand experience
*before* I get all excited :-)

I've heard anecdotes at my LFS that the stuff works. But I don't know
anything else about it. For example, is it safe for crustaceans? (Azoo
Algae Treater is *not*.) Anyway, if anyone has tried the stuff, I'd be
keen to hear how well it worked.

Cheers,

Michi.

--
Michi Henning Ph: +61 4 1118-2700
ZeroC, Inc. http://www.zeroc.com

It worked like a charm for me 10 months ago in my 3' tank. It takes 2 weeks
treatment(1 drop/`15G) although it seems to take about 8 days to actually
kick in and then you'll notice the reduction very very quickly. 30% water
changes every 3 days if I remember correctly as it totally decimates your
biological filter bacteria (words to that effect on the fine print box,
hehe). I still occasionally get it in my planted low light 3' tank if I
overdose iron or neglect water changes for a month. I've had minor traces
of it in my high light/CO2 4' tank if you look hard enough for a few minutes
amost since it was set up a year ago but have never had to add any azoo
treatment to this tank.

"Michi Henning" wrote in message
...
"Chris_S" wrote in message
...

WOW! Now that's real news. I found the manfs product info:

http://www.azoo.com.tw/azoo_en/modul...eview&bkid=309

It's AZOO product number AZ17086. I found another user post somewhere
and
they said it got rid of their BBA in 14 days. If true, that is very good
news indeed.

The only fish stores that seem to have it are outside the US. Have not
found it yet in any of the US websites.

It's certainly worth a try if I can get some.

Thanks for the info!!!

Well, I've never tried it, so I'm looking for people with first-hand
experience
*before* I get all excited :-)

I've heard anecdotes at my LFS that the stuff works. But I don't know
anything else about it. For example, is it safe for crustaceans? (Azoo
Algae Treater is *not*.) Anyway, if anyone has tried the stuff, I'd be
keen to hear how well it worked.

Cheers,

Michi.

--
Michi Henning Ph: +61 4 1118-2700
ZeroC, Inc. http://www.zeroc.com

"Chris_S" wrote in message
...
Hi:

I've tried running the CO2 from 5PPM to 30PPM. You're right having it
higher and more plant growth helps, but the BBA still does not go away.
It
just slows down. I have no problem with any other kind of algae. Just
BBA.

Blackout will have no effect. The doc in the Krib and elsewhere says same
thing. BBA will just go dormant. People have taken out rocks with BBA on
them, let them dry in air 6 months, then put them back in water, and the
BBA
starts right back where it left off. This stuff is HARD to kill. The
only
thing that kills it is Chlorine or Copper Sulphate. Even Copper takes 3-5
days to kill it. Chlorine only takes minutes.

Water control can help or make things worse, but it will never get rid of
it. You could put a rock with BBA in distilled water and the BBA will not
die. Probably just go into hibernation and come back when there are
nutrients around.

The only way I see to kill BBA without killing the plants is Chlorine or
Copper. I've tried everything else. It's time to sterilize the tank.

I'm just kicking myself that I did not sterilize the plants and rocks in
Chlorine when I set this new tank up 2 months ago. I had the perfect
opportunity then to start off with a clean tank. That would have been the
perfect time to get rid of this BBA. Now I see no choice but the hard
way.

Thanks, Chris.

Up your nutrients cut back on the length of light. I had plants with better
growths than my own beard. Cutting out the light doesn't do the trick....
but increasing my light level to @ 2 watts/gallon, upping the CO2, cutting
back 10 hrs a day of light, and the Tom Barr method of dosing nutrients
.......
slowly did the trick. along with manually trimming the worst of it.

A hydrogen peroxide works well if you want to clean up a more delicate
plants.

Now everything is fine, till I forget something .....;-) or go on vacation.

bob