Free Plants Have Black Beard Algae, How To Treat?

[Troy328]

Hello, everyone!

 

I recently received 5 anubias plants completely for free from someone who was breaking down a tank! The problem is the largest anubias of the bunch has a few small tufts of BBA. The good news is that I have been keeping these plants in an empty quarantine tank, so they pose no threat to my display tanks right now. I was also able to trim the affected leaves off, and the other leaves show no clear signs of BBA. Meanwhile, the smaller plants have showed no signs of BBA at all, just brown diatom algae.

 

Do I need to take any futher action before adding the plants to the tank, or was trimming off the affected leaves good enough? Should I assume all the plants in that aquarium are "infected", and if so, how can I treat them so that I don't introduce BBA to my display tanks? I have heard about hydrogen peroxide as a method to remove it, but I'm not sure what to do.

 

This is my first time encountering BBA and I have heard the horror stories so I would prefer to stop the problem before it starts!

[Rube_Goldfish]

Reverse respiration!

I should elaborate on that: the short version is that ordinary seltzer water will kill algae and any other hitchhikers without harming plants (indeed, they get a boost) and with no poison or residue. You should read the whole thing, because it's amazing, but the how-to is right up front, so don't be deterred by the length.

Edited January 5 by Rube_Goldfish
Added elaboration

[Troy328]

On 1/5/2023 at 4:35 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:

Reverse respiration!

I should elaborate on that: the short version is that ordinary seltzer water will kill algae and any other hitchhikers without harming plants (indeed, they get a boost) and with no poison or residue. You should read the whole thing, because it's amazing, but the how-to is right up front, so don't be deterred by the length.

This is incredible! I had no idea there was such an elaborate, well-researched post on here, right under my nose this whole time! I think I will definitely be giving this a try, it will give me a lot of peace of mind to know that everything has been killed off, especially since it came from a stranger's tank. Thanks!

[Darax]

If your tank is big enough, siamese algae eaters devoured the BBA that grew in my tank. 

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 1/5/2023 at 5:29 PM, Troy328 said:

This is incredible! I had no idea there was such an elaborate, well-researched post on here, right under my nose this whole time! I think I will definitely be giving this a try, it will give me a lot of peace of mind to know that everything has been killed off, especially since it came from a stranger's tank. Thanks!

I don't want to speak for @dasaltemelosguy and @Guppysnail but I think they're still looking for crowd sourced data on reverse respiration, so if you want to and if you can, please document your results in that original thread: plant species, timing, maybe before and after photos. Good luck!

[Rube_Goldfish]

By the way, I'm a total hypocrite here. I bought a whole bunch of plants to start off my tank, and having read the RR thread, also bought a case of seltzer cans. Then when all the plants came in, in my excitement, I forgot all about it and planted them all. Whoops! Any recommendations on cocktails using seltzer?

[Guppysnail]

On 1/5/2023 at 7:44 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:

By the way, I'm a total hypocrite here. I bought a whole bunch of plants to start off my tank, and having read the RR thread, also bought a case of seltzer cans. Then when all the plants came in, in my excitement, I forgot all about it and planted them all. Whoops! Any recommendations on cocktails using seltzer?

I don’t drink alcohol or soda pop but any ordinary fruit juice gets a fun boost with seltzer. 😁