Black Beard Algae Everywhere!!!

I've heard spot treating with flourish excel works, or hydrogen peroxide I believe. Ive also heard that turning the lights off and blacking out the tank will cut down on it as well. Usually BBA is caused by fluctuating Co2 levels.

Circulation in that tank? Is the BBA growing in a "dead" spot? Do you know how your CO2 levels are fluctuating over the course of 24 hours? Are you offgassing a ton at night and loading in excess during the photoperiod? Is the CO2 pressurized or DIY? If you are monitoring CO2 by drop checker, move it around the tank, especially where the growth is highest and see if the color shift is constant and stable across the tank.

If you have access to a pH meter, it would also be beneficial to see how much pH swing you get over the course of 24 hours. Many people have CO2 on a timer that shuts off at night when the photo period is not occuring, however with alot of surface movement the off gassing you get could be causing huge swings in concentration and encouraging BBA growth. If you backed off the injection rate, but kept over a 24 hour period, you could maintain more stable conditions without being detrimental to your fish. That will take quite a bit of dialing in though.

The non-CO2 tanks. Look at circulation, if it is minimal, decided if you can live with it. Spotting in Excel or H2O2 will effect it, but it won't cure it. I would try the H2O2 first as overdosing Excel can be detrimental to fish and inverts, and frankly, H2O2 is cheeper.

When I hear black beard algae I have to do my best not make a pirate joke.

I agree with everything tolawjdk said. In my experience BBA absolutely loves fluctuating CO2 so any dead spots where CO2 isn't distributed well or if there's a drop off/rise at any point in the day that may be the cause. For non CO2 tanks it's possible that a large influx during a water change may be the source. Just some thoughts.

I'm assuming that you don't have DIY because of the tank size, but if that is not the case then the fluctuations may be due to the batches running out over time.

Do you have a drop checker? I'm assuming you're running closed to the recommended 30ppm or somewhere in that range. As mentioned it's possible that the daily drop after the CO2 shuts off and then rise again when it kicks on may be at least part of the issue.

cicrush13 said:

The CO2 runs during the day only, it starts 1 hour after the lights come on and stays on until 1 hour after the lights go off.

Click to expand...

It could also be the light. What kind of light do you have and what rating??

PS--I do not think you need to run the CO2 after the lights are off. I would keep the start time, but (IMO) have the CO2 go off when the lights go off.

I had a terrible time dealing with it myself and I believe it was because of the CO2 issue. I never did get that resolved but my plants are doing well enough. If you have the room, I would suggest a few mollies to take care of it. They cleaned my tank in a week.... I also have a school of SAE's that were not bothering with it but the mollies went to town on it. Remember though, my suggestion is to try them only if you have the room.