Eradicating BBA

I guess I no longer believe that there are any water conditions under which
BBA will not survive. Sure you can make it grow faster or slower, but the
point is it keeps growing once it is in your tank. That is not true with
Green algae. That you can control and essentially make it disappear. I've
never had any significant problem with Green algae.

BBA is Red algae (Rhodophytes) and is NOT at all related to Green algae
(Chlorophytes). There are over 5000 species of Red algae of which about 200
are freshwater. Most are sal****er. This is seaweed. BBA is really
nothing more than freshwater seaweed, and is of a completely different
nature than Green algae. It is probably unfortunate that the common term
"algae" is use for both because they are totally different.

I hear a lot of people describing water treatment methods that certainly
have a big affect when dealing with Green algae. But I no longer believe
that these methods are relavant or anywhere near as useful for Red algae.
Red algae does not respond in the same way at all - it is tenacious.

Nick Franks wrote a good article about Red Algae in 1996. As he says, Red
Algae is designed to survive on low nutrients. You cannot starve it out of
existence. It can survive a long time without photosynthesis. Your plants
will die long before it does. The whole point of his article was that once
you get it in your tank, you're in for a battle. There's no winning in this
game, just minimizing your defeat. His #1 recommendation was to eliminate
it before it gets in your tank.

Once you have it in your tank, well I guess you could say it's probably like
having Herpes. You just have to learn how to live with it. I am fed up
living with it and I want it out.

Regards, Chris.