Black Beard Algae on Windelov Fern

Last month I picked up a couple of java ferns, each in a ball of moss from a big box pet store. Today I notice the beautiful tips of the windelov adorned with black beard algae. So I pulled them out immediately and put them in a tall 32 oz container. While it was out of the water and out of the aquarium, I took a pipette and used an entire capful of Flourish Excel, painting the tip of each fern with this clear liquid, tiny drop by drop. I let it sit and then added tap water (well water).

After 24 hrs, I took straight hydrogen peroxide and angled a small container to pool the liquid to one half side and I let the tips of the plant leaves soak down completely in the straight hydrogen peroxide for about an hour. I did not rinse it, but put it back into the 32 oz tall container and filled it up with RO water. Everything stayed covered in bubbles, the walls of the container, other green parts of the plants, but bubbles were especially in the tips of the fern where the BBA are. I let that be for 48 hours.

Today is day 4 and I’m back to taking it out of the water and treating the tips of the fern again with Flourish Excel. I think the black beard algae is starting to change color which will hopefully be a good sign. Attached are some pictures.

I’ll hopefully be able to report some real progress soon. I know my treatments are probably quite harsh. My fingers are crossed that the plant can pull through. I figured this treatment would be better than cutting the tips off the plant leaves which is part of this particular fern’s charm.

Oh yean it's that red color so it is or will be DEAD! [cue party music].

I HATE that stuff. I got overrun with it in my 15 gallon and had to yank everything out (except the fish and the substrate) and start again. It was depressing, but I did it to myself- inconsistent maintenance and inconsistent CO2 application.

From what you described, I think you killed it, killed it, stomped on it and killed it some more.

I had some start to show up on the tips of my anubias plants recently. I used APT Fix and it seems to have done the trick. I couldn't pull them out of the tank, so I just drained a lot of water to get the water level close to the plants, turned off the filter, used the little syringe that comes with the product and let it sit for about 15 minutes before adding water back.

That stuff is the devil- I hope you don't get any more.

I do NOT recommend this as a cure as I don't believe in adding a new species of fish to solve an algae issue but there is an exception as in Panda Garra. I like Pandas just because I love Panda Garras. However if you are in the market for another species check them out as they are very active, peaceful and human friendly... Sigh so human friendly that, if you put your hand in the tank to do maintenance, they are likely to start climbing around on your hand. As an added bonus they are one of the very few species that will happily eat any type of algae I've ever heard of including Black Beard. Like I said, NEVERr add fish to cure algae but if looking to add another species they are just about as close to the perfect species I've ever had the privilege to meet.

I’ve got Siamese algae eaters in my two largest tanks, along with nerite snails in both tanks. I have several amphipod colonies, some in green water jars and some in my 5.5 gallon shrimp tank and they do an excellent job eliminating algae too. In fact, I intentionally grow hair algae in my green water jars specifically for the amphipods. I drop a chunk of hair algae into my 5.5 gallon shrimp tank from time to time and it never lasts long. I’m trying to keep amphipods out of my 3 gallon shrimp tank though and that is the one in which the BBA laced plants were found. I’ve considered pandas, but I really don’t want to add fish to my nano shrimp tanks. I think adding fish will just complicate the process of keeping the water stable in my nano tanks, plus I want tons of baby shrimplets. I have no problem adding critters to my aquarium to perform specific jobs, even if the job is to become food for annother critter, and in my opinion it is all part of helping to create a viable ecosystem. As long as my aquarium life supporting capacity doesn’t max out, I’m fine with it.