[philipraposo1982]

My tank is coming up to 2 months old and the BBA is getting worse, slowly. I am starting to see GSA on the dwarf sag too. The BBA is worse on the dwarf sag too and not much else aside from the driftwood.

I am dosing kno3 every other day and my plants are absorbing all of it.. i check my nitrates and it back down to zero from 20ish in less than 48 hours. Since I started noticing GSA i figured maybe my phosphates might be low (i need to get a test kit to check this). I am now dosing about 1/16 tsp of kh2po4 every other day too.

I am going to try and do more water changes too.

What else can I do to help with this war?

If I cut out all ferts and focus on a ton of wc's would this be a better option? I am looking for the way to fix this long term. I don't want algae taking over.

 

[greaser84]

Tell us about your lighting and co2. Don't concentrate on the ferts as much, make sure they are there so the plants don't run out but take a second look at your lighting and co2 as they are usually the problem. Control the lighting and co2 and you will control algae.

 

[philipraposo1982]

I don't use c02 and i have med / low light. My led is finnex planted plus, it is approx 19" from the substrate.

I was thinking since my nitrates are going to zero, this could possibly be the cause of BBA.

Being new to all of this I really have no clue which route to go in trying to solve this problem and I think that is going to be the reason why things get worse before they have a chance to improve.

 

[Stone454]

well, I would say a combo of too much fert and too much light, it is a fine line without co2 without co2 you need to think low tech low light if you try to make the plants grow too fast with too much light and ferts boom BBA I have had this fight and usually it was too much lighting

 

[philipraposo1982]

What do you guys think of cutting all ferts and increase WC with maybe an hour less light per day?

If I cut ferts my nitrates will be at zero, won't that be an issue?

 

[Hoppy]

Aquarium algae isn't caused by over fertilizing. Too many people succeed with EI fertilizing, which generally means using more fertilizing than the plants can use, for it to be possible that over fertilizing can cause algae. But, if you have plants that are not growing in good health you will almost always get algae. That can be from a shortage of fertilizing, or not enough CO2 to provide the carbon needed by plants growing at the rate the light drives them to, or not enough fertilizing to keep all of the plants supplied with nutrients, so the less competitive ones are unhealthy. Algae can also start when the tank is "dirty" - too much dead or dying plant matter, a big build-up of debris on the substrate, dirty filters, etc.

 

[philipraposo1982]

I have yet to clean my filter, how do I clean a eheim canister filter the right way?

So I should keep on dosing ferts? I just started dosing recently up until then I really want dosing anything

 

[Noahma]

I have yet to clean my filter, how do I clean a eheim canister filter the right way?

So I should keep on dosing ferts? I just started dosing recently up until then I really want dosing anything

pull your pads and filter material out and squish them or rinse them with old tank water. Do not use fresh tap water as the chemicals added to tap will harm the established bacteria. Take any dead or dying leaves out of the tank, and wipe down any algae you see before doing the water change.

If you want to, give seachem excel a try and see if that starts to help. It is a form of carbon the plants can use, and may help balance out the system. If it does work, you can either keep doing the excel dose, or start thinking about investments in a co2 system which would be cheaper in the long run.

 

[greaser84]

Every time I get BBA in one of my tanks its always because of my light. I always seem to get it closest to the light. I think your bright light and no co2 is the problem. Now if you don't want to do co2 (which is fine) you have to tone down on the amount of light and the intensity. Here's what I would do: I would cut the photo period down by at least an hour maybe more, raise the light even higher if that's not possible I'd block out some of the intensity with some screen or something similar, I'd get my trusty old bottle of H202 and a syringe and decimate that BBA and call it a day. As far as cleaning and water changes it sounds like your doing plenty of that. Definitely keep dosing all the necessary ferts, make sure that your plants have enough of everything.

 

[philipraposo1982]

I have h202, what is the best way to do this? The bba is not very dense, it is on quite a few blades of dwarf sag though. Can I do the whole tank volume? Do I have to applied directly on each bit? How much peroxide is too much?

Does it make sense that majority of the bba growth in at the lowest points in the tank? Does this suggest too much light? Or something else?

 

[philipraposo1982]

I will clean out my filter tomorrow.

How does water changes effect dosing? If I doing daily wcs of small amounts does it make sense to keep dosing ferts?

 

[unionfishguy]

I solved my BA problem by starting to dose Seachem Excel. BBA is usually caused by an imbalance of CO2, and Excel curbs this problem. It is simpler than a CO2 system, and the dosing is easy. What I did was pour the appropriate dose into a small measuring cup, then used a syringe to direct dose the BBA. Only use as much as recommended for your tank size, never more. You can treat different spots on different days. Using this method, the BBA should turn pinkish and disappear within a few days (4 for me). Continue on dosing and your plants will love the new source of carbon, and begin to flourish (several of my plants had a noticeable boost in the growth rate after I began to dose excel. Just my 2 cents.


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[Miso44]

I have h202, what is the best way to do this?

I'm about 9 days in on my h2o2 treatment and its looking promising. What i did was cleaned everything i could...scraped as much off of everything (alot of my branchy wood), emptied the tank about halfwayish...applied about 20ml (my tank is a 60P, so 18gal) of h2o2 over the worse/exposed areas, let sit for 1 hour, then refilled. From then on i've been treating the tank with 20ml daily by applying it with a syringe to the affected areas.

I would suggest trying it. just make sure to keep removing as much bba as possible while you go along.

 

[Solcielo lawrencia]

I am dosing kno3 every other day and my plants are absorbing all of it.. i check my nitrates and it back down to zero from 20ish in less than 48 hours.

Impossible.

Since I started noticing GSA i figured maybe my phosphates might be low (i need to get a test kit to check this). I am now dosing about 1/16 tsp of kh2po4 every other day too.

Be patient.

BBA, probably a CO2 issue or there is too much "stuff" on the surface of the substrate. Regularly vacuum to remove.

 

[philipraposo1982]

Its very possible, in fact its true... I dose around 1/4 tsp which puts my nitrates at 20-25ppm and I check my water daily for nitrates after that. In 48 hours nitrates are 0 again.

I do have lots of stuff but how can I clean it with so dense plants? I never vacuum. Didn't think I had to with such heavily planted tank

 

[HUNTER]

My tank has BBA for a while now, but It starts to go away. I have Co2, ferts and med light. I don't have my Co2 cranked up where it's suppose to be because of shrimps. What I do now is cutting down my lights to 5-6 hours a day, cut the ferts in half my normal water change 30% twice a week, because I have too many fish. The BBA starts to go away it's own. Cutting the lighting hours is making a difference, and sometimes I don't turn the light at all for a day, just room ambience light.

 

[jrill]

Its very possible, in fact its true... I dose around 1/4 tsp which puts my nitrates at 20-25ppm and I check my water daily for nitrates after that. In 48 hours nitrates are 0 again.

I do have lots of stuff but how can I clean it with so dense plants? I never vacuum. Didn't think I had to with such heavily planted tank

Are u using something in your filter that may be absorbing nitrates. Never heard of nitrate uptake by plants like that.

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[Jill]

The only time I've ever gotten a reading of 0 nitrates was back when I didn't know you had to shake the crap out of that second bottle AND the tube.

 

[unionfishguy]

I was actually able to get my nitrates down to 0 on an overstocked tank by adding Seachem Purigen, it was incredible (the tank was not overstocked by choice, it was a school display tank and they wanted a large amount of fish to display).


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[jrill]

I was actually able to get my nitrates down to 0 on an overstocked tank by adding Seachem Purigen, it was incredible (the tank was not overstocked by choice, it was a school display tank and they wanted a large amount of fish to display).


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That's what I was thinking, that he might be using purigen

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