Excel as a treatment for BBA? Experiences?

[Complexity]

Originally Posted by amp

On a side note does anyone know if night time aeration with an airstone has any effect on BBA?

Late reply, but I'm catching up after being gone for awhile. The answer to your question is no. The only real way to get rid of BBA is to increase the CO2 to 30ppm or more. Once you get it that high, the BBA will stop spreading and then it's just a matter of killing/removing the BBA that was already in the tank.

[joey2000uk]

Hi all, my first post on this site, very helpfull thread.

My question is this... I have found what appers to be a cheaper alternative to excel called "easy life easycarbo". And was wondering if anyone had any feedback about this product?

Also i have some reluctance to use these aldehyde based products because i have 'pellia' (MT) which i have heard is vulnerable to it. alsoCladophora aegagropila (moss balls) are present and i know these are a colony of algae so am worried these may be susceptable to the treatments.

[unirdna]

I've never heard of this product. Here's a bump to see if anyone else has.

Excel will fry clado with direct contact, but doesn't seem to kill it with regular dosing.

[tazcrash69]

I've never heard of that product either.

And for what it's worth, I have 2 of those moss balls in my 125. I do dose Excel daily (10 - 20 ml), and the only time I've made a brown patch when I got to close spot dosing with H2O2.

[joey2000uk]

Well i have been using it since tuesday (3 doses) Dosing directly onto trouble areas with filtrers off (only reccomended dose), Bba has been turning red and dying, hair algae seems greatly reduced, all very good, and costs 25% less than excel

[NeonFlux]

I think he's referring to this product

http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/inde...oducts_id=1716

[C2C]

whats BBA

[Haagenize]

Originally Posted by C2C

whats BBA

black brush algae

[moogoo]

^ black brush algae.

[Joetee]

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm
Here is a good site for your algae questions.
I hope this works.
Joe

[plantbrain]

Easy Carb is used in Europe, it's more concentrated, but a similar product.
Excel is useful since it have a slight agicidial effect, but importantly, it adds CO2 for the plants at a lower rate than say CO2 gas, but it adds what causes the issue to begin with: CO2 was too low.

To address BBA, it's pretty simple.
1. Reduce light intensity
2. This reduces CO2 demand
3. You can adjust the CO2 back up, you miight try test kits, they sort of work for some, not at all for others, I think watching the fish and plants is the bets method given the trade offs, Riccia makes a good bioindicator, when it pearls well the last 1/2 of the day, then you have decent CO2.
4. Add Excel or whatever, and follow the regular dosing labels. 5mls per 10 Gal daily is fine for that. You do not want to double dose and all that, frigging be patient and do not rush to kill fish, fry plants and rush things, be patient, it'll not grow or get worse if you are adding the Excel and correcting the CO2, if so, then you really messed up the CO2 pretty bad.

5. CO2 is not a toy or something to take lightly and be all casual about.
Many folks are then learn the hard lesson and kill their fish or have them gasping at the surface when they added more and then ran off to work all day........then come home all freaked out.

6. So do this CO2 adjustment slowly and carefully, watch the fish and plants.

CO2 is about 99% of all fish deaths in planted tanks, yes..........99%, the others are due to poor filter cleaning, Excel overdosing, H2O2 over dosing etc
All things due to not realizing they are playing with fire and being impatient.

These stat's do not lie, the KNO3/KH2PO4/Trace/GH related deaths? Never met one, but plenty poo poo me over that issue without any associated evidence of any sort of risk.......
Why not tell folks not to add CO2?
Humm........

7. Lower doses over longer time frames do less damage to the plants/fish, less risk, the algae will die off just fine, give it time.

8. Spend some serious time thinking about CO2 and how to add it, circulate it, measure it, and how to change the demand for it(increase/decrease light), then tweak that and worry less about the other stuff and most all algae issues.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[manny]

I usually get this algae all over my driftwood. I take the pieces out lay then on a metal tray and spray H2O2 over the algae usally for 15 mins then it dies. gotta carefull though make sure you rinse and put the wood in a bucket ull of water so the peroxide that was soake into the wood gets diluted or else you will be killing alot of stuff in ur tank

[niko]

Here we go again talking about algae.

My recent experience with BBA:

6 ft long tank full of manzanita wood. Covered in BBA. Must be two 5 gal. buckets of it if I decide to collect it.

Showed up after a few fish died in the tank and I didn't remove them. BBA took over in 2 or 3 days. I believe that BBA shows up when organics are increased and present.

Let tank be for 4-5 months. BBA became splendid. Most people visiting my house love the tank.

Decided to spot treat with Excel. Squirted 10 ml. over an area 5" x 1". BBA turns blood red on Day 2. Falls off on Day 5-7. Leaves clean wood. Does not return on that spot. Repeated that on 2 more spots. Same timing, same result.

Nice! But also at the time of the first spot treatment I put a golf ball sized amount of BBA in a cup of aquarium water with 25 ml. Excel. That's the equivalent of adding 2.5 gallons of Excel in a 25 gal. tank. The BBA in the cup never turned red. It never died. It died only after I added more Excel to the cup.

To me BBA is a sign of poor maintenance practices. It'a creature that can withstand salt baths, pouring boiling water over it, even bleach.

--Nikolay

[NJAquaBarren]

10 days of Flourish Excel eliminated most BBA. Stressed the fish a bit, the Threadfin Rainbows didn;t fair well, but no other casualties. BBA is not quite gone, but down to a manageable level.

We'll see what happens next.