Algae Annihilation Advice

[chuff]

I have been engaged in an on-going battle with black beard algae for a long time. It is horrible stuff, and incredibly persistent and I have all but given up trying to control or get rid of it.

I am stripping down one of my aquariums and completely redoing it and putting new livestock in there – My number 1 priority is to ensure that none of this algae appears in the new setup.

Most of the algae is on plants, rocks and bogwood – The plants will be going straight into the composter, the rocks I am hopeful can be saved and I’m not so sure about the bogwood – It would be a shame to just chuck it all away as I’ve got some really nice pieces.

In addition to the aquarium and its contents, I will also be stripping down the external canister filter as I also think that could harbour this plague and I don’t want to risk recontamination.

Oh and the only other thing is my sand substrate – If I could clean it all out and keep it(and my army of MTS snails), great. But if there is a chance of algae hiding in it, I’ll just chuck it away and get more.

So – What can I keep and what should I get rid of?

What is the best way to clean everything? My inner OCD clean freak tell me to go nuclear and bleach it all, but will this render the tank uninhabitable for 4 million years?

Should I get rid of all my filter media? I am happy to cycle the tank again from scratch as my new fish don’t arrive for another couple of weeks

I’m grateful for any advice, thanks!

 

[fidjet2]

( NOTE- there is an algae section in the planted section might get more help there )
I would chuck the sand. algae spores can be through it all ( i am pretty sure )
I would chuck the bogwood as well, but you could try scrubbing it with really hot water ?
The rocks should be fine with a good scrub in hot water
The filter media bacteria will die if it has no ammonia source, so unless you keep the filter up and going and add fish food or something, it will be dead by the time your fish get there.....a couple of weeks isn't really enough for a cycle either

i just cleaned out my whole tank today because of algae, i emptied the whole thing, took it outside and hosed it and scrubbed for my life

I am no expert at ANY of this, but just though i would voice my opinion, good luck

 

[Twinklecaz]

I recently tried tipping boiling water over my cocnut caves and scrubbing them afterwards. I did work a little but some BBA did remain. Though it's looked more green than black since. Go figure.

 

[chuff]

Cheers for the reply my antipodean friend

Maybe I can catch some of the MTS's and save them for the new setup, and give them some lovely new sand to hide in

As for the cycle - I've done them loads of times before so I'm not too worried about it, plus it will be a very low load on the filter - I'm setting up a breeding tank for some pelvicachromis taeniatus dehane who will have a nice 20 gallon love palace all to themselves

I wonder if I can link this thread or move it to the algae section ... .. .

 

[cynic]

I have done the opposite, starting over is not smart as you could be in the same spot 6 months on.

I have reduced my algae issues, i have eradicated 99% of my fillament algae the plec deals with the std green stuf so no drama there. I do have some stagshorn but i'm winning.

You need to look at water flow, nitrates, they have an effect including the co2 levels as well. What i'm rattling on from is the algae info on this site. It works.

I am playing with lighting, carbon and ferts as well as my waterchanging and flow and its going my way. It was a green mess a month or so back green everywhere.

 

[ATK!!!]

It's all well and good getting rid of the algae but if you don't know the cause of it, then it may well come back to haunt you later on, even with a complete new set-up. You may want to have a look at some simple things like lighting/ flow/ water change regime etc. as these make a huge impact on whether you have algae or not. As the others said, it may be an idea to have a look at the algae section and do some further research on BBA to find its main causes (I've never had it before so I cant help you there).

Good luck with the problem!

 

[Twinklecaz]

Yes but the info is confusing. It says BBA can be caused by too much flow or too little, too many nutrients or not enough, too much light. It's hard to know which one it is or where to start.

I've heard overdoing with Flourish Excel works OP.

 

[chuff]

Lighting, waterflow, fertilisers, water changes and co2 - All good suggestions.

This stuff is the worst type of algae I've come up against - I am certain it hitch-hiked its way into my system as I successfully kept fish for years before this reared its ugly head - Once it was established nothing I have tried has been successful