Black Beard Algae

[LianaG]

So I come home from vacation and my Mother In Law over fed ALL my tanks, most of which are nano tanks but I do have a 36 gallon which is now riddled with black beard algae!!! It is on ALL of my plants, my rocks, my wood, I've lost a couple fish in this process too! I am absolutely devastated!! The plants I have spent SO much $$ on and I am feeling hopeless that I cannot remedy this!! I have experienced black beard before and lost a lot of my plants when I used peroxide.  What do you suggest I use please help!! 

[Patrick_G]

If it’s really bad I’d try the recommended dose of Easy Carbon and one hour less light. You can use a syringe to spot dose the Easy Carbon directly onto the most affected plants. For epiphytes on rocks or wood you can remove then and dip in a dilute solution of Easy Carbon.

Aquarium Coop also has a video on fish that eat BBA. That might help if you want a more organic solution. 

 

[lefty o]

cut way back on the lights.

[Tihshho]

You can remove any hardscape material and get a spray bottle with hydrogen peroxide and spray it down. For anything on the glass scrape it off with a razor blade (only if it's a glass tank) and anything you can't get off on glass or silicon spray with hydrogen peroxide when you have the water level low during a water change.

[Guppysnail]

This may sound ridiculous but has worked for me in the past with other types of algae from a similar sitter situations. I use coop magic erasers or some paper towels (viva cloth like ones work best and don’t disintegrate in the process) I also remove what plants I can (now it’s all I don’t root in substrate anymore) and actually wipe each leaf where I can then do a larger water change.  It does not fix it but gives me a jump start on fixing it and allows my plants to breath while I straighten out the mess. It’s time consuming but less time than waiting and watching my plants suffer. 

[Mmiller2001]

Fortunately, liquid carbons wreck BBA and I would do as @Patrick_G suggests. However, I wouldn't change my light schedule unless you feel it's necessary. Sounds like your help caused the problem and that is easily corrected now that you're home. 

Just note, some plants will melt with liquid carbons if you dose too much. However, that wouldn't stop me from dosing it, it's just so effective.