Killing black algae while leaving green alone

Walker Anderson

Walker Anderson

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Dec 12, 2005
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www.walkeranderson.com
Hello, I am having a bit of a problem with 'black' algae forming on my micro-grass and moneywort's leaves. It seems to leave the java fern alone as well as other plants. I am looking at a way to rid the tank of it or at least get a grip on controlling it while leaving my green hair algae that has built up on some rocks formations and pottery caves I had made.

The black algae can be rubbed off the leaves, but grows back in a few days. And cleaning all the moneywort leaves is a pain....:(

Any help would be appriciated. Thank you.
 
try od'n some k2so4, i've found a high amount of usable potassium usually kicks the plants into overdrive and starves the bba well. i wouldn't recommend continually od'n the potassium; that can lead to other issues. i have a few mollys in my tank that eat bba shortly after a dose, and my ghost shrimp clean out any dead/decaying bba.
 
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Because I haven't heard the mention of "hair, bushy, or furry" and because it can be easily wiped off the leaves, I'm thinking something more like BGA, and not BBA. Every time I've dealt with BBA, it's been all but impossible to rub off of leaves without harming the plants. BGA on the other hand, since it's basically a slime coating, is quite easy to rub off.

Personally, if I had BGA, BBA, or Green Hair algae, I'd up the CO2, remove as much as possible, and keep the ferts in good proportions. I wouldn't try keeping any hair algae in a planted tank. This stuff can become a problem in no time and choke back the plants.
 
bga is rarely/never black. it could be, since it's covering and moving; but lots of (real) algae can move. the color fits in with bba more than anything.
 
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attack11 said:
bga is rarely/never black. it could be, since it's covering and moving; but lots of (real) algae can move. the color fits in with bba more than anything.
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From my experiences with BGA, it's been very dark green to blackish looking. It tends to look like a rotting slime coating. When there are thinner areas of it, it tends to be more obviously green, but these are just my personal experiences and what I've seen pics of. BBA simply isn't easy to rub off of any leaves, especially on stem plants like he mentioned. I still can't be sure what it is until a more defined description is made or better yet, a pic!

And just because I am unaware of your level of knowledge of plants, BBA is actually a RED form of algae, which is so dark colored that it is black or dark grey colored. It has almost always appeared black in my tanks though. Don't mean to be "matter-of-fact" if you already know this stuff, but just bringing it up since we are discussing the apparent colors of some algae.
 
yeah i know what bba is, etc. the death cycle is pretty cool due the color change from grey/black to bright red to white. the type i get in my area is completely black. the bba i had (pictured here) rubbed off very easy. i used to have a few good pictures of that breakout, but it seems i erased them. if you click "all sizes" across the top, you can see how it's established on the bacopa behind the sword. this happened during my initial setup phase when i wasn't dosing properly.

i've had bga in two tanks, some friends have had it in their saltwater tanks, and it's a got a large segment in discoveryhd's "miracle planet" show. the color range is so wide it's staggering because there's so many types of it.
 
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so true, about all the variations of different types of algae, especially BGA - since it's just a form of bacteria anyways! Thanks for the info on the easily rubbed off BBA. I have never been fortunate (relatively speaking) enough to deal with that kind. I have pretty hard water, so maybe that makes a difference, but not sure. Always more to learn!
 
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