# battle black beard algae... I think..



## marktrc (Jun 6, 2012)

I have a 55 gal with some slow growing plants like anubius, swords and val. I use it as a grow out tanks for bettas. I have only 2 sponge filters and an airstone. the substrate is black sand. 

at some point I saw blackish algae growing on the plant leaves but I did not know what it was as it did not look hair like. later I saw the hair but only on the sponge filter. I now believe it is black beard algae on the plants.

this will be a journal of how I try to get rid of it. 

firstly, I have scraped off as much algae from the glass as I could and changed the water. I added some rams horn snails because that is what I have and some feeder/ghost shrimp.

results after 2 weeks. algae seems slightly less all around but only very slightly. some of the shrimp are black and some arent. this leads me tk believe some shrimp do eat the bba but nowhere near enough to make a diff. snails did nothing.


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## gorillakev (Feb 21, 2013)

I'm currently dealing with bba in one of my tanks, good thing I caught it early because it was barely noticeable until I closely inspected my plants.

It's almost gone now, I've been spot treating with h202 and bumped up my co2 to about 50 ppm. The bba is turning red, once it gets lighter I'm going to start dosing excel. 

If you try that turn off all your lights and filters on that tank before you spot treat h202. I also use a powerhead to circulate the water around instead of using my filter because supposedly it kills off some of the good bacteria in your filter


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## marktrc (Jun 6, 2012)

tried a hydor nano. the smallest one. I found it too strong for my small bettas. ill have to find something else. looking into small internal filters for circulation. 

I also tried a 1/4 tsp h2o2 in 2 cups of water. soaked some anubias for 5 mins. placed back in tank. this morning the plants look healhy but so does the bba. I will monitor for a week because sometimes plants have delayed reaction.

I used full strength h2o2 on the bba on the sponge filter over night. I know this will kill the good bacteria but im hoping the bacteria will grow back quickly. I only did one foam filter of the 2. the bba seems completely gone on the foam.


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## gorillakev (Feb 21, 2013)

marktrc said:


> tried a hydor nano. the smallest one. I found it too strong for my small bettas. ill have to find something else. looking into small internal filters for circulation.
> 
> I also tried a 1/4 tsp h2o2 in 2 cups of water. soaked some anubias for 5 mins. placed back in tank. this morning the plants look healhy but so does the bba. I will monitor for a week because sometimes plants have delayed reaction.
> 
> I used full strength h2o2 on the bba on the sponge filter over night. I know this will kill the good bacteria but im hoping the bacteria will grow back quickly. I only did one foam filter of the 2. the bba seems completely gone on the foam.


If your bba is severe just reset the tank and dip all your plants in a bleach dip you will see all that bba turn white

Drain all the water and and spry your tank in h202 

But I don't know if you want to go to there since you have a 55 gal


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## marktrc (Jun 6, 2012)

gorillakev said:


> If your bba is severe just reset the tank and dip all your plants in a bleach dip you will see all that bba turn white
> 
> Drain all the water and and spry your tank in h202
> 
> But I don't know if you want to go to there since you have a 55 gal


what is your recipe and time for dip pls.

the plants I previously dipped I my h2o2/water have survived but one or two leaves turned brown. the bba is still there. looks like 1/4 for 2cups is the limit for a 5min soak. im thinking about spot treating or a shorter dip but stronger dip. I want to try h2o2 more before I go with bleach dips.

I may end up resetting. wondering if I dry out tank for a week or 2 will kill the bba or do I still have to use chemicals. since its a grow out I may end up going with no substrate and fake plants.


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## marktrc (Jun 6, 2012)

removed some of the dying leaves in the tank. it seems some of the black algae are disappearing from some of the plants. the process is very slow. im thinking tjat it is not the peroxide but the water changes I am doing. the reason being is that the bba is disappearing off plants I did not treat. 

I put some hornwort in but it is not doing well. it looks like brown algae is growing on it. I wonder if my lighting is wrong or the time lights are on. double t5s on for 3hpurs in the morning and 3hours at night. 6500k. hornwort from the same batch I put in a tub with indirect lighting is doing better. go figure.

so next step is keep up with water changes and try and get some excel. im also thinking of experimenting with low dose of copper and maybe more circulation. I dont think im over feeding. im also debating bleach dips though ive read mixed results on it. im also thinking of dipping or adding low dose of methlene blue. MB has done unexpected things in my fry tank. I cant find info on the net about algae and MB.


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## marktrc (Jun 6, 2012)

saw bba on the sponge filters. decided to clean them with perroxide. this had a strange effect. I killed all the good bacteria in the sponge filters. I think this lead to huge green water algae bloom. water is completely cloudy green. fish appear healthy. bba seems less. im guessing it might be the lower amount of available light since the water is so green. or maybe its the green algae using up all the nutrients?


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## marktrc (Jun 6, 2012)

tank still green after multiple water changes. i have added an aquaclear 30 filter. it is under sized for a 55 but i dont want to have so much current in this tank as it is a grow out. i have adjusted the artificial like to 3-4 hours a day.

amazingly the bba is disappearing. if i keep up on the water changes i believe the bba will be gone or at least so little i wont mind.

i also took an anubias plant that was covered in bba and placed it in a 2 gal along with a betta. i do water changes on this tank about every 3 days. the bba looked unchanged but when i rubbed the leaves, the bba came off. 

so apparently my bba infestation is being cured by just simple frequent water changes. unfortunately it is a lot more water changes then i would like. 

bleach and peroxide did not work for me as the leaves would die before the bba would. 

i did buy some excel but i dont know if ill use it.

if i am able to clear the green water ill continue posting otherwise i feel that the bba problem is taken care of


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