Black Beard Algae

[bally]

Hi

I am aware that this has been asked over and over but its difficult to pinpoint the correct answers i am look for all in one place, so any advice would be appreciated.

This stuff has started growing on my plastic plants as well as the real one, its not on any bog wood that i can see. Now i understand that the causes can vary. I have spoke to my local fish shop and he says that limiting the light to 9 hours and a day and to introduce Co2 into the tank.

He also suggested a chemical called hair algae remover which will kill it off,but unless i take the preventive measures it will come back. He said that although some fish will eat it they wont remove all of it.

So heres my questions, best way to remove it, ( scrubbing the plants and boiling in bleach etc is not an option), secondly how do i introduce co2 into the tank?

thank you for the advice

 

[tribalbrit]

Reduce your lighting to 6 hours a day.... spot dose with easy carbo or similar...IF you introduce co2 the problem could get worse unless you have very good circulation.
Feed live plants to encourage stronger growth.

Once you have reduced or eradicated the bba, you can increase lighting to 7 or 8 hrs and then consider co2 injection if the plants you have warrant it.

 

[bally]

thank you

 

[bally]

bought some excel, and overdosed on the first day, spot dosing for the last 4 days. I leave the filter off for about an hour while dosing, and tank lights off for most of the day, only on 4-5 hours. And yet i can see no change. It looked a little reddish the other day but today is as black as ever. Only thing i did notice was the the guppies pecking at it.

What am i doing wrong

 

[cynic]

bought some excel, and overdosed on the first day, spot dosing for the last 4 days. I leave the filter off for about an hour while dosing, and tank lights off for most of the day, only on 4-5 hours. And yet i can see no change. It looked a little reddish the other day but today is as black as ever. Only thing i did notice was the the guppies pecking at it.

What am i doing wrong

Nothing except expecting it to be gone in 4 days, you could be looking at weeks depending on how established it is. The filter will make no diference i'm aware of.

Flow will have an effect, also if you have some plants in there adding some ferts may help. As i understand it adding ferts balances the nutrients in the tank so the trace elements the algae uses to grow is taken up by the plants instead. Its certanly made a difference in my tank, i originally relied on fish poo for plant food. After reading the forum i decided to add proper ferts and adjust my filter output for a better flow across the tank. Now its either gone or in such small patches i'm not concerned by it.

 

[SO19Firearms]

BBA is caused by fluctuating CO2, which in itself can be as a result of poor flow as already stated.
Check out James' planted tank to see how to combat it. This is generally for Hi-tech setups though the put the principles of limiting factors are applicable

 

[sparkycufc]

I'm intrigued by this as I have BBA in a tank that contains only silk plants, (it also contains axolotls but no live plants). It's really rather annoying and I wonder if the same methods for combatting it would work.

 

[SO19Firearms]

I'm intrigued by this as I have BBA in a tank that contains only silk plants, (it also contains axolotls but no live plants). It's really rather annoying and I wonder if the same methods for combating it would work.

I'm not sure in non planted tanks but if we take the same principles of CO2 and light it could possibly point to water changes? Or some other method of CO2 fluctuation - Sump, airstones etc?
One solution although difficult is to go back to the old skool way of thinking and simply starve it of all food.

EDIT: All the above is shooting in the dark

 

[m_attt]

when your doing the water change, use a pippette to put the easycarbo directly on the bba, it will go pink and die off in a day or so.

 

[Akasha72]

I have a black hairy algae on my amazon swords and it's starting to drive me nuts. I'm unable to increase my filter flow as it's fixed. I'm adding furtilizer every week - I'm using Dennerle S7 VitaMix - is there anything else I can try? I've seen a product called Anti Hair Algae (by interpet I think) can I add this aswell without upsetting the balance of the tank or will it not mix well with the Dennerle stuff?

I don't want to upset my filter or damage my fish so any advice on getting rid of this stuff would be fantastic

 

[Aqua Tom]

I have a black hairy algae on my amazon swords and it's starting to drive me nuts. I'm unable to increase my filter flow as it's fixed. I'm adding furtilizer every week - I'm using Dennerle S7 VitaMix - is there anything else I can try? I've seen a product called Anti Hair Algae (by interpet I think) can I add this aswell without upsetting the balance of the tank or will it not mix well with the Dennerle stuff?

I don't want to upset my filter or damage my fish so any advice on getting rid of this stuff would be fantastic

Get a small additional circulation pump. This is a cheap & easy solution.

Put it in the rear corner of the tank with the flow directed along the back wall.

This will circulate the water realy effectivly.

Tom

 

[Akasha72]

Sorry Tom, I've only just seen your reply. I'm currently all out of plug sockets ... I got extention sockets running out of all of them right now. I think I might be slowly losing the plot (too many baby fish!! lol)

This black hairy stuff is getting worse, it's on the glass (I'm scrubbing it off when I see it) it's on my rocks and now on what's left of my twisted vallis (Vallis doesn't like my soft water and my platies like the taste apparently)

I can't run anything else electricly ... any other suggestions? I may buy some of this anti-hair algae stuff after easter. My plants are really healthy and growing like mad but this horrible hairy stuff is spoiling the look