BBA?

[InTr4nceWeTrust]

I noticed some black areas on my plants. I think I have BBA. Not sure though. It's kind of weird because it's only on this plant. None of my other plants have it and I got them all from the same person from the same tank.

[theotheragentm]

http://aquariumalgae.blogspot.com/

Check this site. It may be that these plants you have are leeching nutrients and that is why the algae is growing on them.

[Temo]

it's not algae, i think it's cause of poor nutirition and lac of ferterlize/ lighting. what is your wat/g
do you use fert?,co2?

[gingerinaustin]

Looks like BBA to me, especially that first picture. If that's the only plant it's growing on, then pulling that plant out of the tank will help. If you want to try to save the plant, you could try bleaching the algae off in a 19:1 water:bleach solution (plain ol' regular bleach, not ultra or scented); try not to dip the roots, just the leaves, and leave them in only long enough for the algae to disappear, 1-3 minutes max, then rinse off the bleach and soak the plants in a water/dechlorinator solution (I use about 5 times the dechlor I normally would) for 30 minutes. Some plants won't make it through this treatment but those plants probably wouldn't have made it anyway.

[Que]

I can't tell by looking at the plant out of the water. A close up of the plant in the water might help.

Q

[InTr4nceWeTrust]

@punk_kid(emo_batsukeman)
They are in a horribly low tech tank. 0.85 watts/gallon, 0 ferts, 0 CO2. At the moment, I have no intention to upgrade lights. I'm way too poor for it right now. I do plan to introduce CO2 but it will be at a later time as my pH is still low due to 2 week old Soilmaster Select as substrate. The lack of ferts is due to laziness : /

At first I thought it was just because of the low lights/nutrients but they seem slightly fuzzy. Wouldn't insufficient lights/nutrients just lead to spots and not fuzz?

@gingerinaustin
I'm rather picky about contamination. I'd rather just toss the plants than try to save them. I might bleach and RAOK them if I do conclude that they have BBA.

@Q
I'll upload a picture of the plants in water later tonight.

[gingerinaustin]

At first I thought it was just because of the low lights/nutrients but they seem slightly fuzzy. Wouldn't insufficient lights/nutrients just lead to spots and not fuzz?

If you detect any sort of "fuzz", then chances are it's algae of some sort. That's not to say nutrient deficiencies aren't playing a part, as nutrient deficiencies can weaken a plant and make it more vulnerable to problems of all sorts. Most of what I've read leads me to believe that healthy, vigorous plants can successfuly outcomplete most algae.

Unless you're really attached to the plants, it's probably best to toss 'em, especially if they're the only plants that are affected. However, algae is in every tank, whether you see it or not. How you deal with the algae you can see depends, in part, on what your tolerance for algae is. I try not to overreact to algae as long as it's well-behaved :) though anything that looked like clado or cyanobacteria I'd nip in the bud ASAP. In my tank, the black brush algae was starting to pop up in more than one spot and on more than one plant, so I took some rather decisive action.

[InTr4nceWeTrust]

I have no particular attachment to them. I'll be removing all of them later today (all visibly infected plants have been removed already). I hope they didn't mature enough to release spores. While algae is normal and existent in all tanks, BBA is just evil. It's the only algae that I think can completely rape a tank.

[ThePBM]

what kind of plant is that?
if it's anything like a java fern then dead leaves are one method of propogation.
an old leaf will turn brown/black and soon plantlets sprout from the tips or at random spots on the leaf.

[InTr4nceWeTrust]

To be perfectly honest, I don't really know what plant it is. It was a RAOK from a tank cleanup. The list of plants I received are Bacopa sp. 'Pantanal', Hygrophila sp. 'Porto Velho', Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Bronze', Cryptocoryne x willisii 'lucens', Hygrophila sp. 'Bold'. Most likely it is Hygrophila sp. 'Porto Velho (http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plantfinder/details.php?id=253). If not that then it's most likely Cryptocoryne x willisii 'lucens' (http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plantfinder/details.php?id=196).

I didn't get around to taking an in water picture. I'm lazy when I'm sick : /

[InTr4nceWeTrust]

Too lazy to take and upload pictures of it floating in water. All of whichever type of plant it was has been removed anyways. *hopes nothing else starts to grow it later*

[leocom2000]

yeah, it starts growin on one plant and then.... it's everywhere...