Black beard algae?

Manafel

Manafel

AC Members
Oct 10, 2011
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Tulsa, OK
Real Name
Kayla
I have a 55gal tank that I have had running for about 3-4 months now, its lightly planted. Here lately I have developed an algae problem that I can't seem to get rid of. It's covering all of my plants in the tank. I have tried pulling the plants out and trying to rub the algae off, but it keeps growing back. Also, my plants haven't really been growing at all...

The tank has plenty of water circulation, and I do weekley 50% wc. Has two cascade 500(I think that this is the right number?) filters. I test my water and it never gets above 40ppm of nitrates. No ammo or nitrites, pH sits at about 7.8. I'm not sure on the make or model of my lighting fixture, but I have two day light compact flourescents running at the moment from about 4pm until midnight or so.

I'm guessing its bba from the look of it, but thought I would get someone else's opinion, and also I'm not sure how to get rid of it...

I'm about to toss the plants and just start over later...Thanks.
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Sure looks like BBA. What kind of lighting, and how old is it? If it's a flourescent, the bulbs are only good for a year, and will both inhibit good plant growth and encourage algae growth. You can dose with Flourish Excel (spot dose, syringe, directly on it) or hydrogen peroxide (be careful, as too much will nuke your biological filter, I've done it).
 
authmal said:
Sure looks like BBA. What kind of lighting, and how old is it? If it's a flourescent, the bulbs are only good for a year, and will both inhibit good plant growth and encourage algae growth. You can dose with Flourish Excel (spot dose, syringe, directly on it) or hydrogen peroxide (be careful, as too much will nuke your biological filter, I've done it).
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I'm not sure how old the bulbs are. Probably past their prime. It is a compact flourescent fixture. It should have 4 bulbs, but the two blue acentics went out a while ago. The bulbs are about $40 a piece, so I've been having a hard time getting money to replace them.

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Remove the plants, spray with an excel solution, return to the tank. Add a few nerites--once the excel kills the bba, the nerites will mow it down.
 
Manafel said:
The bulbs are about $40 a piece, so I've been having a hard time getting money to replace them.
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http://www.aquatraders.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=61409L&CartID=1 is a pretty cheap source for replacement bulbs... at least assuming you have a 4x65w PC fixture.

not the best by any means, but likely better than old bulbs, and can probably work with just running 2 bulbs, not all 4.


hope that helps..


and personal experience has been to drain the tank as far as I'm able, use a spray bottle of excel on the worst affected leaves, then fill the tank as quickly as possible.


depending what livestock is in the tank, amanos and nerites will eat the algae, as will flagfish, panda garra or mollies.
 
Once you get your lighting squared away a Siamese algae eater (Crossocheilus siamensis) is the best I've ever seen at eating that stuff. The problem is they aren't that easy to find and people confuse them with Flying Fixes (Epalzeorhynchos kalopterus).

If you're interested in the differance:http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/Algae-Eaters/
 
dougall said:
depending what livestock is in the tank, amanos and nerites will eat the algae, as will flagfish, panda garra or mollies.
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Panda garras eat BBA? I've been eyeing them, anyway, so it'd be a good excuse. That said, if they eat it as well as my nerites (I have olive, horned, and zebra) then I'll probably pass, because they don't seem to do much to BBA.
 
authmal said:
Panda garras eat BBA? I've been eyeing them, anyway, so it'd be a good excuse. That said, if they eat it as well as my nerites (I have olive, horned, and zebra) then I'll probably pass, because they don't seem to do much to BBA.
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My Nerite and BBA Experience has been that they are more able or at least likely to eat it once it's started to die... if it's Black they won't touch it unless they are starving. If you start killing it, by Excel dosing for example, once it starts to turn red, they are more likely to eat it.
 
My current stock in the tank right now is 1 geophagus steindachneri, 2 silver dollars, 4 king tiger plecos, 5 giant danios, and I'm growing out a small bichir to go into my 200... Do you think that adding snails will kind of push my bioload over the edge?

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I'm no expert on this, but if you've got an algae problem, just doing a 'spot clean' and running your setup status quo, will result in the algae growing right back.

IMO, you've got an imbalance going on between your plant stock, lighting, carbon source and/or ferts. Solve that and your algae will subside.

What are you using for your carbon source? Liquid CO2, gas CO2, etc?
 
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