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what are ur remerdies of getting Black Brush Algea where it belongs, ie not in my tank.

Do you use CO2?
If you can maintain 20-30ppm, this will take care of it. Make sure you have this amount through the entire lighting peroid(test right before the lights go off).Also, make sure you have decent testing equipment, narrow range pH test kit etc.
If you use DIY, make sure that as the brew ages, the production of CO2 does not decline much and is still able to maintain 20-30ppm during the photoperoid.

If you do not add CO2, consider fewer/no water changes, better substrate etc,

SAE's will help but do not addrewss the cause and will not helop your plants grow better wereas adding enough CO2 will.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Yes I do use CO2. I have an airstone in the corner of my tank, and the filter is set to introduce airbubbles when the water is returned from the canesters into the aquarium. Is this enough?

Ah-ha!!!
I was just going to post that this seems to be the season for BBA. I think I've noticed it starting in both my 20 and 30. One recieves DIY CO2, the other doesn't but has low light and is just barely planted.

If I can hijack the thread for a moment....how do you test for how much CO2 is in the tank ?

I will now return this thread to its previous path .

^_^

You measure your pH and kH and that determines your CO2 level. I use this program to calculate the CO2 levels


http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_aquacalc.htm

Also read this site

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm

Also, if you have bogwood/driftwood, your CO2 levels maybe off because it lowers pH

james_zy

try this link, I am currently using h2o2 to get rid of it

http://www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/forums/thread.asp?id=43782

[span class="edited"][Edited by FMZ 2004-07-22 15:08][/span]

Since you use CO2, use it right, add 20-30ppm for the entire day peroid whe the lights are on.
This will stop it from growing.
Once that happens, the alga is beat. Your plants will also perk up a great deal.

If you use DIY, make sure there is enough CO2 and make sure the Gas production does not decline too much over the course of the brew changes.

Try to get the gas dissolved well, feed into a powerhead's suction side, send the gas and water into a CO2 reactor tube, fed the gas into a filter inlet etc.

Good CO2 will cure 90% of your algae issues. Bad CO2 will generally help the algae.

I have not had BBA in a decade or so.
I hated it back then.

Careful with adding H2O2 to your tank, many people have killed their fish so make sure you do not add too much.

Bleach dips are safer on the fish etc, but H2O2 is more suited for plants you cannot remove for some reason or another or mild cases that need a spot treatment.

If you see it, that means add more CO2. SAE's can help also.


Regards,
Tom Barr

This does seem to be the season for it. If you check your water chem on a regular bais you may notice that its changed. The water Companies tend to add more chem's to the water during the summer as bad things can develope in warmer climates.

Here's what I do.
Plants photo synthisize better than algee and react to light in the tank much faster than algee. I run my lights on a disrupted schedule. 4-5 hours on,2 hours off, 4-5 on again, during this time. Then shut down at night for full 8 hours. It seems to do the trick for me. My Amazons suffer a bit, but not baddly.

Fish_Fan

Interesting, considering I had just reciently switched my light cycle from something similar to on for 10 hours straight (Whetu was visiting, didn't wanna wake her with the tank lights @4am).

So what I'm hearing is....break up the photo period, and keep up on replacing the CO2?


^_^

The siesta allows a low poor CO2 level to catch back up is all. It's not hurting the algae, they are fine with the lighting issue. Clouds, trees and other things block light during part of the day for both plants and algae.

But if you added 20-30ppm of CO2 during the light peroid for each day correctly, you would not have any BBA nor would see any effect on the algae from the siesta.

As to why it works, algae and plants have the same nutrient/CO2 and lighting requirements, both have chloroplast, green algae species have the same arrangement of grana etc. BBA is a classic case of poor CO2.

Treat the cause, not the algae.
This will grow the plants better and reduce algae.

Regards,
Tom Barr