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Black Beard Algae Tank


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On 2/25/2022 at 5:18 PM, Streetwise said:

Can you find a piece of rotting, low-density hardwood to sink? Maybe you need massive decomposition, with excess light, and over-feeding.

Have, have, have, have, and have... I just need to be patient. I am sure it will grow, eventually. The little bladder snails ate around it while cleaning the little tag that held the BBA during transport, so they are no threat. Hopefully it won't take so long that I will be the one decomposing. 🤪

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A lovely reward day! The little tufts that came in look happy, and I found some BBA tangled in the Pothos!

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The Riccia was not part of the plan, but it seems to like it in there:

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I decided to use the wood in the Pygmy Corydoras tank instead:

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Edited by eatyourpeas
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On 3/1/2022 at 2:00 PM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

It's really coming along now!  I think you fin ally have a great start.  I look forward to the results, which seem like they'll happen in my lifetime now.  😜

Mmm, given that you are so young I am not sure that is a good timeframe... 🙃

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally! Signs of BBA! Unfortunately, I lost one of the Golden WCMM girls to the powerhead outflow. I think the boy has been aggressively chasing them and she probably got stuck trying to get away. The powerhead has been reconfigured to avoid this kind of mishap.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/24/2022 at 5:00 PM, Biotope Biologist said:

Those white clouds are muy gordo!

The girls are indeed "gorditas" from carrying eggs, as far as I can tell. We'll see what happens. The big one, Cashew, is almost twice the height of the other ones, and she is also the oldest and was not a first choice at the LFS, so I adopted her. 😊

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  • 3 weeks later...
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I shall go down in history as the one person who failed at growing BBA.

I have not been very diligent with this tank due to travel, and this box just has no algae left! All the little tufts of BBA disappeared.

I will try to restart the process by adding Fe and Easy Green. Lights have been at full brightness 14 hours a day, plus a blue light.

🤨

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On 6/12/2022 at 8:30 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Excessive nutrients are key, if you’re having trouble remembering maybe put some root tabs in and they’ll slowly leach j to the water column keeping a steady excess for the Bba.

Given that this tank has no substrate, I am going to try hiding the tabs behind the matten wall and see if that helps. Thanks! 😃

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On 6/12/2022 at 10:30 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Excessive nutrients are key, if you’re having trouble remembering maybe put some root tabs in and they’ll slowly leach j to the water column keeping a steady excess for the Bba.

I genuinely get a kick out of algae advice.  The tank I had it in had chronically, zero nitrates, and I was told "low nutrients favor BBA because it is better and scrounging the little available than the plants are".  So who knows...  🤷‍♂️

Regardless, I think EOP could sell her BBA suppressing water.  🤣 

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Well, I am not going to give up. At last night's GSAS I got some beautiful Hygrophila pinnatifida, and as a bonus, there were what look like BBA and snails in the bag (just a few of my favorite things!)

So I am letting it sit for a day on its own with ferts, and then add it to the BBA tank. Woot!

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Edited by eatyourpeas
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On 6/15/2022 at 9:59 PM, Biotope Biologist said:

it’s like you want it to appear but it just won’t unless you despise it enough

 

Like my green water.  Tried multiple times to grow it in jars, small culture tanks - no luck.  Set up a display tank - bingo.  Green as Kermit.

Edited by Odd Duck
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