[sandiegoryu]

I must be the 500th idiot calling to you guys for BBA. And most of you respond with "crank up that CO2!"

Well I did. I had BBA and it was slowly spreading without CO2 and with Flourish Excel. Then I added pressurized CO2 thinking it would solve my BBA problem, but BOOM it spread everywhere and grew twice as fast.

The tank is 2 gallons. 20cm cube. Lights are 18w. The coralife mini fixture. Plants are HC, Blyxa Japonica, and Dwarf Hairgrass (parvula). Have cherry shrimp and bee shrimp. I added two amanos yesterday. I have ADA AS on the bottom and "Shrimp Ichiban Sand" on the top.

Before this explosion of BBA and CO2, I dosed Seachem's Potassium once a day, and Seachem's Flourish Excel at double dosage once a day. All was well. Then I added CO2 to get rid of my BBA once and for all. Plants and some of the BBA pearled happily. Plants grew faster. Then I noticed some defficiency signs. Nitrate and phosphate defficiencies. So I started dosing every other day. I changed my potassium schedule to every other day as well. Then I had to go to a 3 day vacation. Left everything like it was. Just fed a little more than usual. Two hikari crab bites instead of one. Big deal.

Well I came back to see my tank full of BBA. On my rocks, on my HC, on my everything. Saw some staghorn here are there as well.

Did a water change, started dosing again. Added two amanos. Took out Blyxa to find out that its roots rotted. Yet one on the right had it ALL intact. So I ended up tossing most of it, and saved two little plantlets.

Did some tests today:

Nitrates: 5ppm
Phosphates: .5ppm
KH: 10 degrees
GH: ~30 degrees (at the 25th droplet of solution I got lazy and put in enough for 30 and finally the thing turned green)
PH:6.4-6.6 (Really hard to tell.)

Ammonia and Nitrites I would assume to be zero because my shrimp are alive and kicking, bee shrimp mother still carrying eggs, etc etc.

Spending 100 or so dollars for pressurized and coming out with nothing bad bad stuff isn't very fun. My tank was so pretty now its just giving me frustration.

HELP.


Other minor algae issues would be GSA, and fuzz algae on the silicone corners of the tank. That's it.

 

[Hoppy]

First, BBA doesn't go away unless what is in the tank is removed or killed. Removal is far the best unless the infestation is very light. If it is a light infestation, just a few isolated spots of BBA, then a 1.5X dose of Excel will kill it - that means a water change dose that is 150% of the bottle recommendation. Then the daily doses of 150% of the bottle recommended daily dose should make it finish dying.

Once it is all gone or dead, you need to be dosing nitrates, phosphates, potassium and traces, along with the CO2. My 2 gallon nano tank gets only Excel for carbon, plus KNO3, KH2PO4 and CSM+B, and it has a 23 watt, I think, compact fluorescent desk light about 6 inches above the water. Rarely do I get any BBA, and a bigger dose of Excel gets rid of it.

 

[sandiegoryu]

O. Didn't know you HAD to remove it. Thought it would slowly die with CO2. Oopsie. Time to get my hands wet, and hopefully not kill my shrimp... :-(. I hate doing this. Need to buy new HC now....

Then I need to keep an eye on the little strands that find their way out. Perhaps the shrimp will keep the little strands under control...

Thanks Hoppy. I knew you'd have the answer.