Is this BBA or something else?

[Mattlikesfish36]

My dwarf sag has taken a nose dive out of nowhere after doing well for several months. I’m stumped on why it is melting all of a sudden and wanted to see if this is BBA or something else. The only thing I have changed is bumping up the co2 slightly. There is some BBA on my driftwood but it is more tuft-like. Any help would be much appreciated! 

[Zac]

On 8/21/2023 at 8:25 PM, Mattlikesfish36 said:

My dwarf sag has taken a nose dive out of nowhere after doing well for several months. I’m stumped on why it is melting all of a sudden and wanted to see if this is BBA or something else. The only thing I have changed is bumping up the co2 slightly. There is some BBA on my driftwood but it is more tuft-like. Any help would be much appreciated! 

It looks like black beard algae to me. But it’s weird they’re melting so much even with the algae on it. My suggestion would be spot treating with excel and maybe adding some root tabs 

[Mattlikesfish36]

On 8/21/2023 at 9:27 PM, Zac said:

It looks like black beard algae to me. But it’s weird they’re melting so much even with the algae on it. My suggestion would be spot treating with excel and maybe adding some root tabs 

@Zac thanks for the idea! Just popped some tabs into the substrate and will see how it works 

[nabokovfan87]

Yep. That's the BBA.  I recommend checking out the Reverse Respiration thread on the top category on the forums.  It's very, very simple which is great.  It's a really good place to start.

Barring that, here is method 2.  (most often, and explained in the video is that you need to have multiple sessions to get rid of BBA).  The reason being the first treatment will often, only weaken the algae and start the process.  To get rid of it, a second wave is pretty common.  In my case years.

 

 

[Mattlikesfish36]

On 8/21/2023 at 10:22 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Yep. That's the BBA.  I recommend checking out the Reverse Respiration thread on the top category on the forums.  It's very, very simple which is great.  It's a really good place to start.

Barring that, here is method 2.  (most often, and explained in the video is that you need to have multiple sessions to get rid of BBA).  The reason being the first treatment will often, only weaken the algae and start the process.  To get rid of it, a second wave is pretty common.  In my case years.

 

 

@nabokovfan87 cool thanks for the reply! I’ll check out the reverse respiration method. I’ve read up on it before but it has been a while and I’ve never tried it so maybe now is my chance