Getting rid of Black beard Algae

[yassy]

My community tank 75 gallon used to have no BBA but lately, if it is because I see fry popping up here and there and increasing amount of food to go in caused this issue or not but I see BBA growing,especially on top of prefilter sponge , and on leaves of Anubius, and airline tube in sponge filter..

I am thinking of spot treatment;try with hydrogen proxide 3% one directly put via Q tips out of water and put back when water change day and if it did not work, try spot treatment same way with easy carbon from aquarium coop today.

Brandy told me easy carbon should not get dried out so, I need to spot treat and then drop into the water right away? Is it same with hydrogen proxide spot treatment or maybe flourish excell spot treatment as well?

I will try and see if I move LED light placement so it would not hit prefilter and if it would not grow BBA as well.

I am also thinking I put a new prefilter on aqua clear in my 75 gallon,and clean the prefilter real good with boiling water like Brandy said and after that, put the prefilter on top of ceramic bio thing that are in the mesh bag and keep it soaked in tank water and when I clean the one that is covering aqua clear 110 tip in the tank, I can put this prefilter that I was keeping in the filter box. Do you think that works as well?

 

For combating BBA,  what are your preferred method? Hydrogen proxide? Flourish excell? Easy carbon? Do you prefer to dose into the tank directly or do you prefer spot treatment?

 

Thank you.

[Fish Folk]

First off, Brandy is the best! You’ve got excellent counsel there.

I breed fish a lot, so BBA doesn’t bother me too much.

But to kill it off, I’d recommend pulling out non-living Hardscape, tubing, etc. and liberally spraying with 3% H2O2. Wait a few minutes, and put back. The BBA will turn red in a few days and die off.

Then, order yourself about 10x Siamese Algae Eaters. Be very sure they’re _not_ Flying Foxes or Chinese Algae Raters. My SAEs are excellent at trimming BBA off of Swords, etc.

Edited December 23, 2021 by Fish Folk

[yassy]

On 12/23/2021 at 5:59 AM, Fish Folk said:

First off, Brandy is the best! You’ve got excellent counsel there.

I breed fish a lot, so BBA doesn’t bother me too much.

But to kill it off, I’d recommend pulling out non-living Hardscape, tubing, etc. and liberally spraying with 3% H2O2. Wait a few minutes, and put back. The BBA will turn red in a few days and die off.

 

Thank you. I came across aquarium coop blog ( https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/faqs/black-beard-algae )  and it says "Another chemical treatment is to spray the BBA-infested plant or decor with 3% hydrogen peroxide (purchased from your local drugstore) outside of water, let it sit for 5 minutes, rinse off the chemical, and put the item back in the aquarium. The dying algae turns red or clear, and animals may eat it in its weakened state. Just remember that there are no quick fixes – BBA can take six to eight months to get established, so expect it to take at least that long to get rid of."

 

Today, when I did water change, I pulled out the aqua clear prefilter sponge and tube and gave it a good cleaning in the tank water in the bucket and changed prefilter to new one. THen, with old one, I saw youtube video that was showing 50% water 50% hydrogen proxide dip for plants so I made 2C treated water and 2C hydrogen proxide and let it sit 2 min and removed some algae if I can spot it well ( prefilter is black color so hard to distinguish) and drop it in to the corner of the community tank so bacteria will be still the same number even if I exchanged with new one.

My other question is, when I did dip the prefilter sponge, I did not rinse it off with tank water.I should have rinsed with tank water and then drop it in to the tank (I wanted to put on the filter box where I see bio ring stuff are but it was too big/bulky and could not fit well so I ended up just drop into the community tank...?  @Cory,please advise.

@Brandy,regarding pouring boiling water to prefilter with BBA, hot boiling water kills algae? Would it kill bacteria on the filter as well?When you said "even cleaning the filter sponges won't be a huge problem, bacteria will recolonize almost immediately," you were talking about boiling water would not kill the bacteria on the prefilter? I still got sponge filter and sponge in aqua clear so it is not like all bacteria would die off just because I did something with prefilter sponge but I was curious.

I also dosed bit lighter for easy green today to see if it helps.

I will keep eye on hydrogen proxide dipped prefilter sponge that was dropped into the tank change BBA color or not.

 

Thank you.