Easiest Way To Eliminate Brush Algae

[mrapoc]

I know its bad asking for the easiest route, but I am only back and forth from uni on a weekly basis and the brush algae has started to take over.

What is the easiest way to beat it back? Nowhere around here ever have flying fox in stock. I don't have a large enough budget for CO2 equipment

I have some flourish excel though.

Its a 70l tank

 

[This Old Spouse]

I'll be interested to see if you get responses, because I think that's what I have. I posted a photo here and asked if anyone knew what it was and didn't get a response.

 

[tanksalot]

The quick fix for BBA is dosing with a liquid carbon (Excel and Easycarbo are the two I know).

Any hardscape/hardware that can be removed from the tank I take out and scrub. Plants that are not rooted in the substrate (Anubias, Java fern) I also remove and spray the affected leaves with a solution of Excel (1 part Excel to 3 parts water), leave for about 10 minutes then rinse and return.

For plants that cannot easily be removed, I take off the worst affected leaves and spot dose what's left with Excel. I put the required daily dose for the whole tank into a syringe, turn off the filters and powerhead, shoo the fish out of the way and squirt the Excel directly onto the BBA. If there's a lot it can take a few days to get round it all, but it will see it off.

Then you have to work out why it attacked in the first place, because if you don't, it will more than likely be back.

Black Brush is a CO2 related algae and is brought on by low or fluctuating levels in the tank.

In high tech tanks the remedy is generally to increase the amount of CO2 and/or improve circulation around the tank.

In low tech tanks the water change regime may need adapting - tap water can have large amounts of CO2 dissolved in it, and that sudden influx can cause problems.

What lighting do you have in your tank? The strength of that basically decides whether the tank can be run without carbon supplementation.

Hope that helps.

 

[mrapoc]

Thanks very much!

I have a 36w daylight plus (interpet) light on it.

What would you recommend? CO2 increase or just a change in water changes?

 

[tanksalot]

Hmm. That's about 2 watts per gallon so you may have too much light there to run it without some form of carbon addition.

Your plants are sending an unequivocal message - they have a carbon problem - but the correct response can be tricky to determine.

Once you're rid of the BBA you could try performing smaller water changes, drawing your water change water the day before you intend to use it to let excess CO2 gas off, increasing the surface agitation in the tank and making sure there is good circulation around the plants.

If the BBA comes back in spite of that, then it's probably time to reach for the liquid carbon and start dosing on a daily basis, or look into lowering the lighting.

 

[mrapoc]

Thanks

I do usually get the water the day before and use an airstone to bubble it up.

There is pretty good surface agitation however i did suspect 36w was quite high. I do usually do quite a large water change around 40% each time - that might not be helping.

Is there an easy way to measure Co2 levels? If so, I could just dose excel whenever its needed and change the light once its past its life

 

[SO19Firearms]

Is there an easy way to measure Co2 levels?

A drop checker will do that - Most effectively if filled with 4dKH water + reagent.
But....this will only guide you to a co2 level, excel/Easycarbo only adds carbon, so won't change that reading.

I'd go with dosing Liquid carbon as per the instructions (or as instructed on here) and sticking to it

 

[mrapoc]

I'll try it and see how it goes. I'll remove what I can by scrubbing/spraying with excel and then dose the tank appropriately unless the same can be achieved in the tank without affecting livestock?

Carbon filtering won't remove excel will it?

 

[tanksalot]

I'll try it and see how it goes. I'll remove what I can by scrubbing/spraying with excel and then dose the tank appropriately unless the same can be achieved in the tank without affecting livestock?

I always prefer to physically remove as much as I can, partly for aesthetic reasons and partly because I've found it can be pretty stubborn stuff and I feel the less there is alive in the tank, the quicker I'll be rid of it. Also, if it's a bad outbreak then there may be foliage that is too damaged to recover, so might as well get shot of it and dispose of some of the algae at the same time. But sure, you can just dose/spot dose the tank with the recommended amount (or a bit more if that doesn't work) and you'll kill it off eventually.

Carbon filtering won't remove excel will it?

Tbh, I don't know. I never have carbon in my filters unless for a short time after using medications, so I've never thought about it. Hope someone else can answer that for you.

 

[ian]

nope, carbon won't remove excel.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

I had it bad in a 60 litre and dosing 4ml a day of excel and I dropped the water level one day and sprayed everything with a 50/50 solution mixed with de-chlorinated water and after a week it was all gone.