Jump to content

BBA infestation - How do I fix??


Crabby

Recommended Posts

Hey shrimpers,

I’ve had an algae problem for a while now in my 29 gallon aquarium (110L), but recently the BBA has taken over way too much. It’s on literally everything. I would have treated with H2O2, but as far as I’m aware you can only spot treat with it. I’m open to pretty much anything. I do have some really beautiful hair algae growing along my driftwood that I would prefer to keep, but if it’s not possible to remove one without the other it’s fine, the BBA has to go. Let me know what you think I should do. Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Crabby

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I only have this is my oldest tank and there it ONLY grows in small amounts on the plastic casing of the filters. As the filters are black anyway I just live with it! It never grows on my plants etc, just the black plastic?

I would assume that the setup must be out of balance somewhere, do you know why you are getting it? I know the nitrates are a bit high on my effected tank.

Simon

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the prompt reply Simon. I know I probably have some nitrates, but the tank is currently filled to the brim with plants! I have a full mixed carpet and plants all along everywhere else, so I think I'm covered for the nitrates. Honestly the most likely problem is the lighting, and I've been wanting to get a light timer for this tank but haven't got around to it. My other tank has one and it works well. Chances are though if Australia follows suit to America and Italy with coronavirus prevention plans, I'll be staying home all day anyway and will be able to have lower light levels quite easily. So this is the permanent prevention fix I have in mind (self regulation while we are told to self-isolate, and a light timer afterwards if the shops haven't sold out of those as well!) and I will employ these as methods to avoid an algae take-over again. In the meantime though, I need to get rid the BBA and greenspot I have everywhere (and probably the hair algae... ?), so I'm looking for a way to handle algae through the whole tank. I'm moving my tts into my other tank so it doesn't need to be invert-friendly, but I have expensive and sensitive apisto fry in there as well (more photos coming soon!) so do need to be careful of that.

 

Cheers

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You could probably get a timer through the mail?

Are you using Fertiliser for the plants as that may be a part of the problem? 

I saw this that may be helpful as long as there aren't any shrimp in the tank? I've never used hydrogen peroxide so I'm not sure whether that may kill the bacteria in the filters?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk3wShH4vNM

If the tanks are close enough you can just plug both into the one timer with cheap adaptor, I have done this and it works well?

If the green spot is on the glass, using an old credit card as a scraper works very well and being plastic doesn't scratch!

It does strike me though that the tank just isn't settled yet, my tank looked very unhealthy and had some algae until it had all settled?

DSC00542.thumb.JPG.52cd785ddca2b4c34bc7d24c3ebe4688.JPG

Simon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

So I’m finally trying to combat the algae - I’m dosing flourish excel again daily, adding a timer, and I purchased a pair of true Siamese algae eaters (I like triple checked on id once I had them in my tank) to help handle the problem. To be honest, the SAE are cute enough on their own, even if they didn’t do anything for the algae. But I’m going to try to push them to eat it. Once they start, it’s like a massive buffet for them to gorge themselves on!

I’ll be cutting down light to eventually 4 hours a day, slowly bringing it down and back up to sit at 8 over the course of a few months. 
 

Below are some pictures of my new SAE, Watson and Holmes!
(They’re here to solve the problem ? )
3A53AF14-B4F3-4BC5-A0E6-D93896F2E1E5.thumb.png.c2d28e80cb1e17a919138f56ba3ec6a0.png

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have you tried just pulling the algae off with your hands in the tank to help slow the spread? It may decrease the algae enough for the SAE to get the rest of it. Good luck.

- B

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, Blazepelt said:

Have you tried just pulling the algae off with your hands in the tank to help slow the spread? It may decrease the algae enough for the SAE to get the rest of it. Good luck.

- B

Good idea... from my experience it doesn’t work well though. The Blackbeard floats around until it can attach to something else, and it just increases the spread. The Blackbeard is also super well attached to everything, and very very tough. I tried scraping it off and sucking it up with my gravel vac once, but I only got the hair algae, no BBA. Just gonna drop lights, dose excel, maybe try the scraping thing again and let the SAE get the rest.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow okay good luck. I’ve only got brown algae so easy to clean.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I first set up my first tank I got the BBA on the wood in the tank (is that  where yours is) but nowhere else. I removed the wood (that alone is one easy solution of coarse) and left it on a window ledge in full sun(ish as we don't get that often)  for some weeks which killed the BBA and dried the wood out, it was many years ago but I'm sure I must have put it in another tank at some stage but the BBA didn't come back! If it is on a piece of wood/ornament it would still be easier to remove it from the tank to pull the BBA off, if that is easily done?

Lovely fish by the way!

Simon

Edited by sdlTBfanUK
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let me know if your SAE eats BBA.

Mine doesn't, fussy basturd. 

Edited by jayc
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, jayc said:

Let me know if your SAE eats BBA.

Mine doesn't, fussy basturd. 

Ahaha yeah I hope they will! Haven't seen them go for it yet, but maybe (as I'm dosing excel again) once it starts dying a bit they might eat it? To be fair I've been a bit caught up, haven't been watching them 24/7 or anything. Still totally loving how they swim around like absolute best buds. It's the cutest.

20 hours ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

BBA on the wood in the tank (is that  where yours is)

Honestly, it's pretty much everywhere at this point. Wood, plants, rock, glass, moss. Only place without might be the substrate... but then again I can't even see the substrate anymore ?

20 hours ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

If it is on a piece of wood/ornament it would still be easier to remove it from the tank to pull the BBA off, if that is easily done?

Again I feel super stupid for not thinking of this one, thankyou Simon for being the king of common sense! I can do that with my biggest rock, that'll look loads better. The others have java moss that attached to them. And the driftwood has some anubias attached, plus my apistogrammas look like they're breeding again and they used that as a cave last time. 

 

Also I'm going to remove all the dwarf chain sword, if I can, because I don't like it much and it's making a mess, plus it has BBA in it. Will update in maybe a week on what I've done and how it's going. Thanks fellas. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you can remove pieces of ornaments from the tank, then boil them to kill the BBA.

Let the piece cool and you can put it straight back into the tank. The SAE will eat and clean up the dead BBA after that.

Pieces too big to fit in a pot can be scorched with boiling water. Much, much easier than pulling it by hand.

Edited by jayc
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, jayc said:

Pieces too big to fit in a pot can be scorched with boiling water.

By 'scorched' you mean just running boiling water over it for like 10-15 secs? Or like a couple of kettles...?

I like that idea though, means I can 'spot treat' the BBA half of my driftwood, without harming the anubias. Thanks jayc! 

Also I have some anubias that I got as just a few leaves, now I have about 15 leaves and it's doing great, except it has BBA fringing the egdes of the leaves. Do I cut off all the bad leaves (80%) that took so long to grow? Or should I just wait and hope all of this will work?

Cheers, Crabby ?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just want to see your tank without the driftwood in it. But with the Anubias I’d personally pull it out with the driftwood and get a pair of tweezers and go crazy. Another option is cutting the edge of the leaves off where the bba is it should grow back and increase growth speed aswell.

-B

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Crabby said:

By 'scorched' you mean just running boiling water over it  with like a couple of kettles

Boiling water over it from kettles. You can target it precisely and protect your anubias.

 

1 hour ago, Crabby said:

Do I cut off all the bad leaves (80%) that took so long to grow?

Spot treat the edges of the leaves with Excel. Anubias leaves are tough. It will handle the Excel. To be safe, dilute it 50:50 with water. An old paint brush is perfect for this. Leave it for 5 minutes, than rinse off the Excel under the tap.

 

No! don't cut the leaves.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is exactly the sort of info I was looking for! Thanks loads jayc! And yeah Blaze, it’s gonna be near-impossible to remove the driftwood, so I may as well take the chance to partially rescape and try to grow my crypts again or whatever. Thinking I’ll do all this in a couple weekends. Big plans for my tanks to come! (Also there’s a chance I might be setting up a little 5 gallon rack... still in the design process though! 3 tanks stacked sorta thing. Hoping.)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/3/2020 at 7:14 PM, jayc said:

Let me know if your SAE eats BBA.

Mine doesn't, fussy basturd. 

I caught him eating it just a couple of minutes ago! It's pretty hilarious to watch, really, but I was impressed to see him actually eating it.

Sadly I lost one of them - I think I had some water quality issues after I did a large water change, and some of my ember tetras got fin rot and/or fungus (all getting better now), and one of my SAE died. Hopefully I can get another some time soon, but I'm glad that the remaining one is doing fine, and I seem to have found the problem. Such a shame though, whenever a fish dies of anything but old age.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, Crabby said:

water quality issues after I did a large water change,

Sorry to hear one SAE died. Did you forget to dechlorinate the water or something? SAEs are tough otherwise.

But good to hear that the other one actually eats BBA.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, jayc said:

Did you forget to dechlorinate the water or something?

Definitely dechlorinated, but the water went really cloudy, so the water change seemingly triggered something strange with the water. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • beanbag
      Update to say that after a few gravel vacs, front wall scrub, moss / floating plant trim, that the condition seems to have improved.  My current theory is that it is due to waste / debris management, where "stuff" like that brown mulm accumulates in the substrate and behind the HMF filters.  Maybe some tanks can somehow deal with it, but mine can't.  Also another experienced shrimper suggested that maybe those "shell bugs" don't just live on the shrimps but also in this debris.  Maybe this is the reason some tanks fail due to "old tank syndrome" where all they need is a good gravel vac? Also, I am guessing that plant trim helps too because now more of the nutrients and light go into growing algae instead of more plants? Well anyway for this tank I will try weekly water change and monthly gravel vac / plant trim.  For my next tank, I'm thinking of something like an under-gravel system where this mulm can fall down and I vac it out.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Good to have an update and good to hear you are getting shrimplets, so hopefully your colony will continue and you may not get to the point where you have to cull some to stop over population. These type of shrimp only live 12 - 18 months so the adult deaths may be natural? If you have the time I would do weekly 25% water changes, adding the new water via a drip system and do some vacuuming clean of the substrate each week, even if only a different bit each week! See if that helps in a few months and if it does then stick with that regime? It should help reduce any build-ups that may be occuring!
    • beanbag
      Hello again, much belated update: The tank still has "cycles" of 1-2 month "good streaks" where everybody seems to be doing well, and then a bad streak where the short antenna problem shows up again, and a shrimp dies once every few days.  I am not sure what causes things to go bad, but usually over the course of a few days I will start to see more shrimp quietly standing on the HMF filter, and so I know something is wrong.  Since I am not "doing anything" besides the regular 1-2 week water changes, I just assume that something bad is building up.  Here's a list of things that I've tried that are supposed to be "can't hurt" but didn't prevent the problem either: Dose every other day with Shrimp Fit (very small dose, and the shrimp seem to like it) Sotching Oxydator Seachem Purigen to keep the nitrates lower Keeping the pH below 5.5 with peat Things that I don't do often, so could possibly "reset" the tank back to a good streak, are gravel vac and plant trim, so maybe time to try those again. One other problem I used to have was that sometimes a shrimp would suddenly stop eating with a full or partially full digestive tract that doesn't clear out, and then the shrimp will die within a few days.  I suspected it was one of the foods in my rotation - Shrimp Nature Infection, which contains a bunch of herbal plant things.  I've had this in my food rotation for a few years now and generally didn't seem to cause problems, but I removed it from the rotation anyway.  I don't have a lot of adult Golden Bees at this point so I can't really tell if it worked or not. Overall the tank is not too bad - during the good streaks occasionally a shrimp will get berried and hatch babies with a 33-50% survival rate.  So while there are fewer adults now, there are also a bunch of babies roaming around.  I guess this tank will stagger on, but I really do need to take the time to start up a new tank.  (or figure out the problem)
    • jayc
      If that is the offspring, then the parents are unlikely to be PRL. I tend to agree with you. There are very few PRLs in Australia. And any that claim to be needs to show proof. PRL genes have to start as PRL. CRS that breed true after x generations doesn't turn it into a PRL. Neither can a Taiwan bee shrimp turn into a PRL despite how ever many generations. I've never seen a PRL with that sort of red colour. I have on Red Wines and Red Shadows - Taiwan bee shrimps. So somewhere down the line one of your shrimp might have been mixed with Taiwan bees and is no longer PRL. It just tanks one shrimp to mess up the genes of a whole colony. 
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Sorry, missed this one somehow! The PRL look fantastic and the odd ones look part PRL and part Red wine/Red shadow in the colour. They are still very beautiful but ideally should be seperated to help keep the PRL clean if you can do that.  Nice clear photos!
×
×
  • Create New...