BBA Success Story

[PotatoFish]

Here are two pictures showing before and after for the dreaded Black Beard Algae!

Before

After

The long story is below...TL;DR provided at the end.

The BBA probably developed as a result of a major amount of aquarium light and sunlight. My goldfish and dojo coach also added their own particulates to the water. However, I must add the observation that the BBA did not start to take hold until after the addition of the dojo coach.

Due to some unfortunate circumstances involving a rosy barb, the goldfish and dojo loach passed away. A story for another time, perhaps...

 

Tank Set Up

A 17 gallon tank (rather odd number, right?) when I mathed it out...it has this large built-in, hang-on-back filter. I have a sizeable coarse sponge on the intake, and 110 cubic inches of space for filter material which I filled up with more coarse sponge sheet that was cut to size. The substrate is crushed coral, pH 7.7ish, hard(er) water, and low nitrate (gotta be up on those water changes).

 

The Fight Begins

Now, I was stuck with a fishless tank and lots of BBA. Channeling Barney Stinson, “Challenge, accepted!” I began with decontamination of the “ichy” tank and the addition of 3 amano shrimp and 3 cherry shrimp (my kid was really bummed about the goldfish, Loppy, and dojo loach, Jojo Dojo), and watching shrimp scurry everywhere made him happy. I had read that shrimp are unaffected by ich, and the meds were shrimp-safe. They did a little bit of BBA nomming, but I didn’t expect such a small number to make a noticeable dent.

 

Plant Reinforcements!!!

The live plants in the aquarium were annubias petite (not nana petite), and some java fern. For those who are unfamiliar with them, these plants don’t grow fast. However, they did quite well with the goldfish. Irene (Girl Talks Fish) had once mentioned in a video that one of the best defenses against algae was a massive amount of healthy live plants in the aquarium. So, I brought in some cuttings of cabomba, some penny wort,  and miniature water lettuce from my tanks at work. Without the loach and goldfish, I could now experiment in this tank with a wider variety of plants that wouldn’t get uprooted and/or eaten. I also bought some water sprite. All but one would NOT stay rooted, so now they just float and grow like the happy weeds they are...you do you, plants.

 

Enter the Fish Mawn Lowers

Before I continue, I should echo some great advice I once got, “Don’t get fish JUST to do your job of tank maintenance for you. Get fish that you genuinely want to keep.” I started by rewatching old Aquarium Co Op videos and decided on a bunch of colorful livebearers - a trio of male guppies, a male teacup platy, a male variatus platy, and male gold dust molly. A tank full of baby fish kind of freaks out my wife, so we went with “The Boys” tank. There is also a lone, but VERY well-fed otocinclus named Otto von Bismarck II. A quartet of bronze corydoras later joined the mix.

 

The Turning of the Tide

The fish were introduced after quarantining and treatment (reminder: ALWAYS quarantine and treat). And I figured the filtration and plants (just the anubias and java fern) were enough for a fully-grown fancy goldfish (5.5" from nose to peduncle) and a dojo loach (relatively small, like a board marker size). The new fish should be perfectly fine with the added plants. The new little fish even eat less.

 

The new plants flourished once they got settled. The two cabomba, like hydras, grew an extra stem each. The water sprite shot out new growth almost within a day or two. The water lettuce grew from occupying ~15% of the surface area to ~35%. All of this within less than a month. There would be no extra nutrients for the BBA army. 

 

Assault on Fortress BBA

The BBA growth had been halted. Now, now was the time to attack! And the long-oppressed citizens of the tank, the mini-ramshorn snails could finally grow to full-sized adults without becoming goldfish or dojo-loach food. Small green clearings appeared on the annubias leaves each with a snail shell 1-2mm in diameter slowly moving about.

It was not until the third week when the molly had had enough of the yellow cobra guppy's constant displays that the inner dragon was unleashed. It began to rip and tear the BBA off of the anubias leaves, the pots, and the lava rocks. It removed around 85% of the BBA in the "before" picture at this time...I'm not sure who ate it (my guess is the variatus platy, he has grown easily 25-30% bigger in the last month while the others progress normally). The cobra guppy stopped displaying...for like 2 days, and then it was business as usual.

The grand BBA army is routed, and the remnants are used to make more snails or get the cobra guppy to back off for an hour or two.

 

The Current State

The fish and plants are currently all doing well. One of the bronze corydoras I was worried about due to barbel erosion has since grown faint barbels back and is on its way to becoming a chunky monkey. The amano shrimp have also increased an uncanny amount. I was genuinely worried because of all the molts I saw and thought it might have been my adding fertilizer or doing a water change. But they just keep getting bigger. Three zebra danios were added and succeeded as the right dither fish for the shy corydoras.

 

The BBA exists in small patches and on the edges of leaves. But on the hardscape, it is almost completely eradicated.

 

TL;DR.

My goldfish and dojo died, the tank was covered in BBA, fast-growing plants were added to halt growth, livebearers were introduced to nom, and only the molly and mini-ramshorn snails really ripped it apart FTW.

 

Pardon the long story. I wish you all the best in your BBA wars.

[Flumpweesel]

Since setting up a shrimp tank (with non optional mini Ramshorns ) I just rotate my plants round when they need a tidy up

[PotatoFish]

On 8/1/2022 at 4:36 AM, Flumpweesel said:

Since setting up a shrimp tank (with non optional mini Ramshorns ) I just rotate my plants round when they need a tidy up

I had considered a Rosy Barbasaurus tank for shrimp culls and algae servicing. However, I wanted to deal with the algae issue "in-tank" instead of "out-of-tank" with a toothbrush/hydrogen peroxide/Barbasaurus. I felt it would help me learn more about how to handle such a problem.

[Guppysnail]

EDIT TO ADD:  I ADORE YOUR FISH NAMES 😍
For future reference here is a quick fix for BBA. Kills it in 9 hours. It won’t stop it from returning if the imbalance is not corrected but it will kill all BBA without plant damage or fish danger and is 100% chemical free total cost is the price of a bottle of seltzer water.  It actually gives plants a leg up by immediately killing the BBA to allow them to outcompete potential new outbreaks. 

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by Guppysnail