Easy Carbon and Black beard Algae

[Ben Mills]

So I’ve gotten some easy carbon, but I was wondering how to use it to treat my black beard algae on my plants, Zoe’s bio filter, etc.

[Brandy]

So, while I am generally a fan of all the ACO products, I will urge incredible caution withany liquid carbon. DO NOT OVERDOSE. It is hazardous to animal life in your tank at high doses. And to you--don't let the toddler play with it.

In my experience, I have had the most reliable results spot treating areas that are impossible to manually clean--in otherwords I remove and scrub off algae on rocks or hardscape, prune off leaves on fast growing plants, etc. Then I lower the water in the tank, and using a pipette or syringe I squirt a small amount of liquid carbon directly on the leaves of slow growing plants like anubias or bucelphandra while they are above the water line, taking care not to exceed the dose for the tank. Then I refill. 

All that said, this is a temporary method, and a better one is to figure out what is causing the algae to begin with and fix that. For staghorn I have found that High light + Low nitrate makes it grow. For BBA I have found High light + High ammonia--20 decaying snails in the puffer tank for instance. Both situations resolved with floating plants, and stag horn needed added easy green, and the bba required less dead snails!

[yassy]

On 5/21/2021 at 3:46 PM, Brandy said:

So, while I am generally a fan of all the ACO products, I will urge incredible caution withany liquid carbon. DO NOT OVERDOSE. It is hazardous to animal life in your tank at high doses. And to you--don't let the toddler play with it.

In my experience, I have had the most reliable results spot treating areas that are impossible to manually clean--in otherwords I remove and scrub off algae on rocks or hardscape, prune off leaves on fast growing plants, etc. Then I lower the water in the tank, and using a pipette or syringe I squirt a small amount of liquid carbon directly on the leaves of slow growing plants like anubias or bucelphandra while they are above the water line, taking care not to exceed the dose for the tank. Then I refill. 

All that said, this is a temporary method, and a better one is to figure out what is causing the algae to begin with and fix that. For staghorn I have found that High light + Low nitrate makes it grow. For BBA I have found High light + High ammonia--20 decaying snails in the puffer tank for instance. Both situations resolved with floating plants, and stag horn needed added easy green, and the bba required less dead snails!

I came across this post while searching for answer to combat with BBA. I have never done spot treatment kind so I would like to know; when you do spot treatment above water level or taking rock with plant out and spot treatment, how long do you let it sit and then refill?

 

You need to wait certain min and then put water back in?

 

I did not have BBA in my 75 gallon tank long time but lately, guppy mama popped out fry more and feeding a bit more than I used to and it is possible that is why BBA showed up but started seeing on top of prefilter which cory seems to like to nibble or playing I am not sure, and bit small BBA patch on sponge filter airtube line... I have 1 aqua clear 110 and 1 big sponge filter in 75 gallon tank on both ends of the tank and running to filter.

Thank you.

[RonBFree]

I use Flourish Excel to get rid of BBA. 

I first trim back the plants that have algae on them.  Too much light is a factor as well.  Keep your lights off while treating the algae and then cut back by 50% when you start using them again. 

Flourish Excel not only kills black beard algae, but it will improve the growth of the other plants in your aquarium. This will be especially noticeable if you don’t already inject CO2.

Using it is simple. Just follow the instructions. In my last tank, it took just a few days before I began to notice the black beard algae wither and die.

Ensure that your water flow is adequate to deliver the Excel to every corner of your tank.

If you don’t notice a change, double dosing may be required. When I double dose it I treat every other day for three treatments.  I change 30-40% of the water after every treatment.  Alternatively, you can try spot dosing. 

[Brandy]

On 12/19/2021 at 10:49 PM, yassy said:

I came across this post while searching for answer to combat with BBA. I have never done spot treatment kind so I would like to know; when you do spot treatment above water level or taking rock with plant out and spot treatment, how long do you let it sit and then refill?

 

You need to wait certain min and then put water back in?

 

I did not have BBA in my 75 gallon tank long time but lately, guppy mama popped out fry more and feeding a bit more than I used to and it is possible that is why BBA showed up but started seeing on top of prefilter which cory seems to like to nibble or playing I am not sure, and bit small BBA patch on sponge filter airtube line... I have 1 aqua clear 110 and 1 big sponge filter in 75 gallon tank on both ends of the tank and running to filter.

Thank you.

Generally I wait a few minutes--not long at all. If you are using easy carbon to spot treat plants you do not want to let them dry out.

If you are able to take the item out, and the BBA is on something that can handle heat (rock, driftwood) I would just scrub and pour boiling water over it. In the case of the pre filter sponge and air line I think I would do that if they are removable. If you have an established 75g tank, even cleaning the filter sponges won't be a huge problem, bacteria will recolonize almost immediately, just feed lightly for a few days after. 

However, lights shining on your filter can encourage algae growth right where you don't really want it. Keep its cover on, and black out any LEDs with tape that shine on something that is not meant to grow!

[BenA]

I have just started to get rid of Black Algae in my tank, it got to a point that nearly all plants were covered as well as wood. Did not use any chemical but changed ~40% of water every week and after 3 water changes inserted a bag of Phosphate remover into the filter, a week after I started with the Phosphate remover the algae started to disappear.