Elyse Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Hey ya'll. Been battling black beard algae for a long time in my 75 gallon to the point where I had to take everything out and start over. Been turning down my lights every two weeks so they are now at 60% peak intensity for 6 hours a day with 1 hour ramp up and ramp down, added stem plants to suck up my excess phosphates so they are now about 0.5 on average, my nitrates tend to float around 20-25, and I've recently started injecting CO2 so that its around 15. I also use excel to keep it at bay but it still seems to be coming back with a vengeance on my driftwood. Please help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darax Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Siamese Algae Eaters devoured the BBA in my tanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elyse Posted February 8, 2023 Author Share Posted February 8, 2023 (edited) I don't have space for a group of siamese algae eaters in my tank. I have some American Flagfish that are helping but not enough. Can I do just one? @Darax Edited February 8, 2023 by Elyse Douglas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 It's not nutrient related. Your CO2 is too low. Also, excess organics and overly strong direct flow cause it. 9 times out of 10, it's CO2. I would bump light period to 8 hours with 30 minute ramp up and down, increase CO2 and keep up all fertilizer components. Clean filter and all dead low flow areas. Improve co2 distribution around the tank as well 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJenna Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Are you able to remove your driftwood and use Reverse Respiration on it? Everything plant or hardscape-related gets RR before I put it in the tank. I had a bad outbreak of bba and had to do RR on all the plants and hardscape to get rid of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elyse Posted February 8, 2023 Author Share Posted February 8, 2023 I'd rather not. I'd have to dig up a lot of my plants to do this because the driftwood is attached to slate rock bases under the substrate to keep them from floating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elyse Posted February 8, 2023 Author Share Posted February 8, 2023 @Mmiller2001 So have 8 hours full intensity with 30 minute ramp up/down on either side? I have pretty high flow from a fluval 6 canister filter and an airstone should I point the outputs upward to reduce flow in the tank? What level of CO2 should I be shooting for, I've read between 15 and 30 is ideal. Sorry, that was a lot of questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 25ppm is very safe. I like to direct flow to push the CO2 around everywhere. Mine goes from back to front. I use a spray bar that creates good surface agitation. It hits the glass and is directed down through the tank. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darax Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 On 2/7/2023 at 4:23 PM, Elyse Douglas said: I don't have space for a group of siamese algae eaters in my tank. I have some American Flagfish that are helping but not enough. Can I do just one? @Darax I had a lone juvenile in a 20 gallon. He was fine. I now have two tanks (55 & 75) each with a pair. My YouTube degree tells me that they are fine alone or in groups. I got the first three looking for a fish that could live with my goldfish. Aquarium coop suggested them in the store. The algae removal was a surprising plus. They are interesting fish. Maybe less so solo. They are very fast and like to chase each other. Individually they like to sleep on plants or decorations. Here's one taking a vertical nap on the castle tower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 100% to what Mmiller advised. My own experience has been that CO2 and balance has caused a lot of my BBA issues. The substrate was basically growing it that's how bad things were. My lighting has been all over the place and I worked with him on figuring out some of my CO2 issues. I swapped diffusers, I added circulation pumps, and I went through a lot of trial and error before I ended up getting things to trend in a positive direction. A. Don't overfeed. B. Actually be very diligent about cleaning BBA off of surfaces, siphoning it out, and making sure it doesn't destroy your equipment. I have gone through everything from RR, peroxide, easy carbon, to a variety of other methods..... like literally scrubbing my wood with an algae scraper. I am at the point where you are, and have been there, of wanting to just nuke the tank and start over. Once that stuff is in the tank, it's basically impossible to remove. Control is one thing, but you won't remove it. C. You likely need to dose in CO2. I could run 4-5 taps of air and it did basically nothing to diffuse enough CO2 and running 3+ filters or having good surface movement didn't do enough to get CO2 into the tank. Directly dosing it seems to be one of the key factors to get ahead of it. (for me). D. Apart from directly removing it and siphoning things out, you likely won't ever have a strong enough UV bulb (wavelength and duration) to remove the algae spores from the water. This is why water changes matter. I can miss one or be a day behind and it just goes off. You have to get the plants growing, get ahead of it, and then you have to get enough plants to get ahead of it. E. Spot treatment of easy carbon (or flourish excel) works very well to push back the algae. With an infestation, you're never going to dose in enough to eradicate it, but that is a very, very critical tool to use when you are trying to fight it back. Peroxide is also another one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elyse Posted February 9, 2023 Author Share Posted February 9, 2023 @nabokovfan87 @Mmiller2001 It's just so frustrating because none of my other tanks have this issue. It's just my 75 gallon. I think I'm going to add a siamese algae eater to help while I get things in balance. I've been slowly increasing my CO2 input by increasing bubbles per second but it won't seem to budge from 15. Should I add another diffuser? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted February 9, 2023 Share Posted February 9, 2023 What kind of filter are you using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elyse Posted February 9, 2023 Author Share Posted February 9, 2023 @Mmiller2001 its a fluval fx6 canister filter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted February 9, 2023 Share Posted February 9, 2023 On 2/8/2023 at 6:28 PM, Elyse Douglas said: @Mmiller2001 its a fluval fx6 canister filter I would build a reactor for that size tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elyse Posted February 9, 2023 Author Share Posted February 9, 2023 @Mmiller2001 I've been doing a lot of research based on your suggestion for flow direction and my diffuser is in the wrong spot! I'll try moving my outflow farther to one side and direct the flow across the tank to the diffuser on the other side of the tank and see if that helps. If not I may consider a reactor, but reactors look very intimidating to me to be honest... I attached an image of suggested positioning of diffuser I found on the web Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted February 9, 2023 Share Posted February 9, 2023 That's a good start. The DIY Cerges reactor is pretty easy to make. There's a YouTube video on how to make it. Just get a 20 inch cartridge and reverse the flow input. Cheap too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elyse Posted February 12, 2023 Author Share Posted February 12, 2023 @Mmiller2001 I attached a picture of the flow set up I have now for the C02 system; filter power heads and surface skimmer in blue and CO2 diffuser in red. But it looks like the CO2 bubbles only travel to the left 2/3 of the tank. There is an air stone in the right back corner. I've tried with it on and off to observe the bubbles traveling and there wasn't much difference. I moved the surface skimmer to the front left corner to push flow back across the tank to the right but it doesn't seem to be enough. Do you think adding a power head in the front left corner would help push the co2 bubbles across to the right 1/3 of the tank. And air stone on or off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 You could try one. Looks okay otherwise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now