Wonder if anyone can tell me what this is
- Thread starter Anteiku
- Start date
It looks like Black Beard Algae.
Pretty stubborn and hard to get rid of
Normally because there is something not quite right with your tank set up, could be lights on for too long, sunlight, not enough flow, too much ferts or poor water quality.
So without further info about your tank, how often and how much water changes you do, how long lights are on for, what filter you use and if you add any ferts for the plants or not etc, then it’s hard for us to help sort of pinpoint the cause.
What I find useful is this link, an article written by Jeremy Gay, very good and knowledgable keeper who writes for famous magazines. This will help give you a more informed idea about BBA.
www.swelluk.com
Pretty stubborn and hard to get rid of
Normally because there is something not quite right with your tank set up, could be lights on for too long, sunlight, not enough flow, too much ferts or poor water quality.
So without further info about your tank, how often and how much water changes you do, how long lights are on for, what filter you use and if you add any ferts for the plants or not etc, then it’s hard for us to help sort of pinpoint the cause.
What I find useful is this link, an article written by Jeremy Gay, very good and knowledgable keeper who writes for famous magazines. This will help give you a more informed idea about BBA.
How to get rid of Black Beard Algae (BBA)
Black beard algae is a horrible, tenacious algae that is unsightly and hard to get rid of.
www.swelluk.com
so, I do about a 20% water change every week and vaccume the substrate at the same time, lights are usually on between 8-12 hours, and presently I do not have any ferts for the plants. the filter is a tetra whisper
Ok, you could reduce the hours to 8 hours every day, getting a timer will help keep your lights regular daily.
Lights on for too long every day encourages algae growth rather than plant growth.
Then you can up your weekly water changes to at least 50%, a lot of keepers including myself do a weekly water change of around 70%. This will improve the water quality which will benefit both your plants and the tank livestock.
The addition of fast growing plants will also improve things as these will consume the nutrients from the water column which will starve the algae.
And lastly, yes, you could get rid of the plants or scrub off the algae if you can, but hard to do that with BBA.
Probably easier and quicker to replace the plant imho.
Doing all these will help keep algae at bay, might not eradicate all the algae but will certainly help.
Hope that helps.
Lights on for too long every day encourages algae growth rather than plant growth.
Then you can up your weekly water changes to at least 50%, a lot of keepers including myself do a weekly water change of around 70%. This will improve the water quality which will benefit both your plants and the tank livestock.
The addition of fast growing plants will also improve things as these will consume the nutrients from the water column which will starve the algae.
And lastly, yes, you could get rid of the plants or scrub off the algae if you can, but hard to do that with BBA.
Probably easier and quicker to replace the plant imho.
Doing all these will help keep algae at bay, might not eradicate all the algae but will certainly help.
Hope that helps.
The other thing about a timer is that the lights are on for the same length of time and at the same time of day every day. This is important for the fish.
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