Black Beard Algae Questions

[dmurray407]

I've been going through some past posts and have come up with a few answers, but thought I would ask anyway because now I have more questions:)  For a long time I have had a few tufts of BBA in my 60 gallon tank-it's been under control. I try to do water changes (20-30%) every couple of weeks, keep my light levels down and gravel vac a few times a week. I keep my nitrates around 40. I had some Irian Red Rainbow fish who recently died. They were crabby old (7-8 yrs) guys and liked to pester anything smaller than them so I only have a colony of Cory's (20-30-they are too fast to count), and old tetra, a couple of otocinclus and one white mountain minnow. There are 5 Amano Shrimp as well. A couple of weeks ago, I got a new filter (an Oase 350)  because the old one (Fluvial 407) was pooping out and now the water flow in the tank is now much stronger. The black beard algae is going nuts. If I take my existing plants out (3 nice amazon swords-the rest could probably go to plant heaven) and treat them with Easy Carbon (yes, I have a full bottle 🙂 ) or use the reverse respiration technique do you think that would take care of the BBA? How long until the spores die off in the gravel and filters (I have a few sponge filters in the aquarium as well as the Oase) I worry about the Amano Shrimp and could move them to a different aquarium that I'm just keeping some plants in during the Easy Carbon treatment. Which method do you think would be best-the Easy Carbon or the RR? If I do the RR won't the BBA spores just regrow? If you made it this far, thank you! Also, when the BBA is gone or at least back under control, I have a couple of nice manzanita driftwood pieces I want to put in the aquarium-my fear is that they will be a magnet for the BBA to regrow. Any suggestions are appreciated!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

@nabokovfan87 had issues with BBA. He ultimately changed out the substrate, and it resolved the issue. If I’m not mistaken, the problematic substrate was Fluval Stratum. 
 

Are you using a bioactive substrate?

[dmurray407]

On 9/4/2024 at 12:25 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Are you using a bioactive substrate?

No, I have about 2 inches of regular aquarium gravel. 

[dmurray407]

On 9/4/2024 at 12:25 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

@nabokovfan87 had issues with BBA. He ultimately changed out the substrate, and it resolved the issue. If I’m not mistaken, the problematic substrate was Fluval Stratum. 
 

Are you using a bioactive substrate?

No, it's just regular "aquarium gravel".  It's about 2.5 inches thick-I could cap it with a little more and cover up the "old" gravel....

[JoeQ]

One of the most important aspects of algae control is regular maintenance. Keep things clean, depending on the age of the substrate a total deep gravel vac maybe in order. If its realitively new a light substrate vacuum will  do, but be sure to remove ALL rotting organic material, left over food, ect.

You also need to keep the surface of your water clean. This will help with gas exchange and absorbing co2 from the atmosphere.

Another aspect is turnover, if you don't have a filter with a turnover rate of 6x ~10x an hour it's an uphill battle.

Edited September 5 by JoeQ

[dmurray407]

On 9/5/2024 at 1:01 PM, JoeQ said:

One of the most important aspects of algae control is regular maintenance. Keep things clean, depending on the age of the substrate a total deep gravel vac maybe in order. If its realitively new a light substrate vacuum will  do, but be sure to remove ALL rotting organic material, left over food, ect.

You also need to keep the surface of your water clean. This will help with gas exchange and absorbing co2 from the atmosphere.

Another aspect is turnover, if you don't have a filter with a turnover rate of 6x ~10x an hour it's an uphill battle.

Thank you. I do gravel vac at least once a week-maybe I don't suck enough out especially around the plants. I have a new Oase canister filter that just replaced a Fluval 407-I think the Fluval was failing for a while but the BBA has actually increased since I put the new filter in. My surface water is pristine-no floating plants or films-just a few bubbles from my sponge filters. I think I'm going to pull the plants out and treat them with reverse respiration and with them out of the way I'll be able to vacuum the gravel in those spots a little more thoroughly.

[JoeQ]

On 9/5/2024 at 2:53 PM, dmurray407 said:

Thank you. I do gravel vac at least once a week-maybe I don't suck enough out especially around the plants. I have a new Oase canister filter that just replaced a Fluval 407-I think the Fluval was failing for a while but the BBA has actually increased since I put the new filter in. My surface water is pristine-no floating plants or films-just a few bubbles from my sponge filters. I think I'm going to pull the plants out and treat them with reverse respiration and with them out of the way I'll be able to vacuum the gravel in those spots a little more thoroughly.

I was reading that and had to laugh, I was thinking about replacing my 307 that is on my 36g, for the oausia (sp) 350 or 407. From my reading I came across the mention that too much flow is also a big contributor to algae. Could that be a contributing factor for you too or over cleaning to the point of disturbing micro colonies? 

Edited September 5 by JoeQ

[dmurray407]

On 9/5/2024 at 2:54 PM, JoeQ said:

too much flow is also a big contributor to algae. Could that be a contributing factor for you too or over cleaning to the point of disturbing micro colonies? 

I read that somewhere, too. I have to say that I do like the Oase-I've used Fluval for many years-had a couple of 305's and then the 407. The great thing about the Oase is the media. No prefilled bags to purchase-all the layers have foam, but you could easily replace that with whatever media you want. The other cool thing is that it has a mini prefilter that all the water goes through and supposedly all the sediment gets cleaned before getting to the main canister. It's really easy to take the prefilter out and clean the sponges in it-all without opening the main canister. So far it's working great-except for the BBA-and I'm sure I'll get a handle on that soon. I suppose it's possible that better filtration has disturbed the microflora-I hadn't thought of that. Oh, and I got the model with the heater in the filter canister and that has been working great-and one less piece of equipment in my tank, though I still will put a back up heater in the tank when the weather cools down.

Edited September 5 by dmurray407

[JoeQ]

I've had fluvals since 2015 (i think) starting with a used 106 and then upgraded every few years to the 307. I guess you can say I'm more or less brand biased at this point.

As for switching the main selling point on the Oase was the internal heater feature, but the biggest draw back (and deciding factor) was the disturbance Id be causing to my microbes.

With the Oase I'd have to install new in & out flow tubes, baffle them, fiddle with it till I got a good flow pattern, and then run it while also running the 307 for awhile. But if I go 407 all id have to do is swap media, sponges into a new canister then plug the existing Aquastop valve into the new canister for an almost seamless  transition.

Here is an article that might give some insight into your algae issues. How tank maturity (which IMO also includes your canister & tubes) plays an important role in the battle vs algae

https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/algae-control/algae-and-tank-maturity?_pos=1&_sid=052225c6d&_ss=r

Edited September 6 by JoeQ

[dmurray407]

On 9/6/2024 at 5:19 AM, JoeQ said:

As for switching the main selling point on the Oase was the internal heater feature, but the biggest draw back (and deciding factor) was the disturbance Id be causing to my microbes.

I worried about this as well. I have 3 sponge filters running (historically) and all the gravel and hardscape. I did leave the Fluval running for a few days after the switch. I think I've found part of my problem with the algae-my phosphate level is pretty high, so I'm working on reducing that. Reminds me-I should test my tap water for phosphate as well........Thanks for the article!!

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/4/2024 at 10:25 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

If I’m not mistaken, the problematic substrate was Fluval Stratum. 

The issue in mine was circulation + about 100 other things and the substrate just loved to make funky things grow.  It was seachem fluorite black.  It's a "known issue" of sorts with basically all of the flourites having so much iron.