Getting Rid Of Bba When Adding Plants...

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SouthernCross

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Hi,
 
So I am taking the plunge and planting my tank up again after a long time. In the mean time, my driftwood and one lone anubias which is left in addition to my airline tubing, filter uptake tube have all got quite thick BBA on them.
 
Now I'm wondeirng what is best - nuke the tank with Flourish Excel and kill it al;BEFORE I add my new plants, or will the new plants be beneficial in terms of out-competing the algae? Issue is I am getting slow growers instead of stem plants as it is a cichlid tanks and stem plants in my experience just get shredded. So I am looking to had vallisneria, crispus, java fern, swords, more anubias, and maybe a tiger lotus and some banana lilies. I have also got some floating frogbit coming soon too.
 
Also thought the problem might be lighting too. Currently my lights are on 4.5 hours in the morning and 4.5  hours in the evenig with a 5.5 hour break in between. I am just wondering if this is good or bad, and what kind of adjustments should I be making, both to kill the algae first and foremost, and then for the type of plants I  want to keep? Also its a two foot deep tank - with standard tubes could I be having issues that the light is not penetrating deep enough? Especially for things on the bottom like swords.
 
Once things are under control I plan to keep dosing Excel. Should I be dosing something like Trace, too? I am a bit confused when it comes to the fertilisers. I am not wanting to do Co2. Its  big tank.
 
I might be best x-posting this to planted once I have some feedback about the algae issue! But keen to hear from you algae experts especially if its my lighting contributing too.
 
Thanks
 
 
 
 
 
my lights on my planted  29 gal and my 35 gal are reasonably bright and are on 13 hrs a day.  I had a bout of bba in one of the tanks and some green algae in my other one.   In the tank with the bba I added 3 ottos and 1 siames algae eater and started treating with excel, flourish, and flourish trace  and all algae is now gone.
 
I would add all the plants first and then start dosing excel as well as any other ferts you plan on using.   You might remove the airlines, anubias , and driftwood and spray with 3% hydrogen peroxide---leave on for 15 minutes then rinse in dechlorinated water.
 
I would do a mix of excel and almost no light for a bit. Anubias dont mind no light so no issues there. Dont add fertlisers until you get your new plants, if you do it before it means more BBA, no one wants that.
 
Nerite snails eat BBA but the cichlids may eat them.
 
You can also try getting rid of the light in the morning long term.until you get your new plants.
 
I would scrub all the BBA off anything, do a large water change to remove excess nutrients, then do a 3 day blackout to kill any remainingg BBA, and then get rid of one 4.5 hour area of light and dose excel until you get your plants. Then slowly add ferts if you want..
 
Swords and crypts are heavy root feeders so instead of liquid ferts you can use root tabs. Anubias and java fern dont really need liquid ferts.
 
Clean up the BBA, if you're dosing excel I'm not sure how you'll get on with a siesta - it might not be much use by the second set (presuming you can't dose excel for the 1st and second periods seperately)...its a tricky one.
You might want to consider a full 6-8hrs medium light with excel dosing or keep the siesta with low light and drop the excel.
Either way make sure you're dosing a Complete fert with plenty of Nitrate and phosphate.
 
 
 
...and as an aside - generally take any advice about removing excess nutrients, heavy root feeders and plants not needing food with a bucket of salt - but that's just my opinion
 
Alright, I'm actually away for two weeks so what I did before I left was get rid of the morning session. So for about two weeks while I'm away there will be only five hours of light total so I will see what the BBA looks like when I get home.
 
Planning to get into this planting project when I get home.
 
What would be a good lighting regime and dosing regime? Its a very deep tank, 2 foot deep so I'm hoping the light will penetrate sufficiently. I'm not sure how long to run the lights for, whether a break in the middle is good, etc. 
 
In terms of the Seachem Flourish range.... which products should I get other than Excel to keep the plants I want to keep going nicely? Also if anyone has any other recommendations for cichlid friendly sturdy plants I would love to hear it.
 
Doing periods of blackout won't effect much. Maybe lessen by an hour. What I do recommend is good filtration and flow. Low flow will surely give you bba. Co2 fluctuating will also give you horrible.
bba as well.
1. Water change 50%. This will get rid of excess nutrients and give you a stable start.
2. Adjust lighting. 5-8 hrs straight. Not in breaks. Plants photosynthesis like humans sleep.
3.start doesing consistently. If you dose co2 inconsistent you will get bba.
4. Routine water changes and add ferts and co2 after to replenish. Remember you dont want your co2 to fluctuate. As for lighting there is so many different units out there and diy . Just research.
How big is your tank?
 
My tank is a 4 x 2 x 2, so about 450 litres. So quite deep, thats why I was concerned my lights might be an issue.
 
I run two Fluval 305's on it - I would have thought that would be quite a lot of flow. Should I consider adding a little wavemaker or something?
 
When I do my water changes (usually every 1.5 - 2 weeks) I change 50% every time.
 
I can access the Seachem/Flourish range easily locally so thats what I want to use for my ferts. I really don't have a lot of knowledge about ferts so which products in this range should I buy, and how often should I dose?
 
My understanding is BBA is generally caused by fluctuating co2 levels and/or bad circulation. I don't think light is a contributing factor for this particular algae. I might get shot down for that though...
 
rms said:
My understanding is BBA is generally caused by fluctuating co2 levels and/or bad circulation. I don't think light is a contributing factor for this particular algae. I might get shot down for that though...
 
Not shot down but think bigger - Light is inextricably linked to CO2 - More light = more CO2 use - So fluctuating CO2 might mean somebody turning lights on by hand - 5hrs one day 12hrs the next.....
(whether that helps the OP or not I don't know, but every little helps)
 
SO19Firearms said:
 
My understanding is BBA is generally caused by fluctuating co2 levels and/or bad circulation. I don't think light is a contributing factor for this particular algae. I might get shot down for that though...
 
Not shot down but think bigger - Light is inextricably linked to CO2 - More light = more CO2 use - So fluctuating CO2 might mean somebody turning lights on by hand - 5hrs one day 12hrs the next.....
(whether that helps the OP or not I don't know, but every little helps)
 
 
That makes a lot of sense. Thanks :)
 
Could it be a circulation issue though? That's also pointed at you SouthernCross :)
 
No, I run a timer on the lights, they turn off and on themselves, that's how I know the schedule.

I run two fluval 305s on the tank (it's a 4x2x2) and I'm pretty sure just one of those is nearly sufficient for a tank that size, I thought two would give plenty of circ.

I run an air stone too, could that contribute to the problem?
 
You'll get folk saying that using air stone will remove dissolved Co2 from your tank (even when injecting) In my experience this hasn't been the case with air stones running or not my Co2 levels climb at the same rate and drop checker reaches lime green at the same time, while I know a drop checker reaction time isn't the most precise of devices to do accurate testing it's close enough for me to dismiss an air stones negative effects, If you have BBA just double dose with liquid carbon until it shows signs of dying back, also a possible cause along with lighting periods in excess of 10-12 hours is nitrate levels lower than 15ppm. Planting some fast growing weed plants along with your "show" plants should help combat it's return.
 

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