BBA Just Won't Go Away

DGalt

DGalt

AC Members
Jun 1, 2008
703
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0
Connecticut
I'm at my whits end. I can't get this stuff to go away.

It's only in a few spots but I'm worried that it's slowly spreading.

This is in my 15 gallon. I have 26 watts of CFL, with a 10 hour photoperiod. I'm using a pressurized CO2 system (drop checker is a yellowish-green) that comes on 2 hours before the lights and shuts off with the lights. I'm not dosing ferts (only thing I've put in there are root tabs). Nitrates are 10ppm, nitrates and ammonia are 0ppm.

I've tried both the excel and hydrogren perioxide treatments, but neitehr have worked. I've removed it from the wood several times, but it always grows back.

I have no idea what to do. Any suggestions?
 
Heat it to kill. Boiling water, oven on low, giant microwave, flame thrower.... your choice bro. Do you run a UV? Cause that would help keep algae from reseeding by wacking it while free floating.
 
Pull the driftwood out and scrape it with the edge of a spoon to remove any soft/decaying wood, rinse it off under tap water, dechlorinate and add back to the tank. This is probably the origin of the problem.
 
like I said, I have scrapped it off. multiple times.

and I've also tried boiling the wood. did that a while back when I redid the tank - boiled all of the driftwood to try and kill the BBA that I was having issues with then......

:swear:
 
what i want to figure out is where the algae is coming from (i.e. what conditions do I have that are conducive to algae growth). i don't think I have a nutrient overabundance and I'm certainly not in the high-light (or even medium-light) range. the plants in the tank are all slow growing, so obviously they probably aren't out competing the algae for nutrients, but I don't know what to do about that
 
i've been meaning to get one of those test kits but just haven't gotten around to it. i was under the impression, though, that bba was more related to co2 and nitrates. i don't know where excess phosphates would come from (i don't overfeed...i actually probably underfeed b/c i'm rather absent minded :lipssealedsmilie:)
 
Try reducing your photo period to 8 hours maybe even less. I used to have problems with cyano and diatoms with photo periods over 8 hours on my low light tanks. Of course manually remove as much bba as you can first. Not sure if it'll work though.
 
manually remove as much of it as possible

and only run the light for like 2 hours a day max for about a week... just enough to keep your plants alive

this is like a partial blackout basically and theoretically should kill it off
 
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