Blackbeard Algae and Fertilisers

[Country joe]

I have had blackbeard algae for quite a while, and although its still there I seem to be getting on top of it, but what I find baffling, is do I use use fertilisers or not, some say yes and others say no, what's your opinions.

 

[gimme30]

Aren't the interwebs great? Everybody's got an opinion but there's rarely a consensus.
In this case I take the middle ground, or an average. Common sense says yep, plants need ferts. Maybe dial them down some. Maybe dial down the lights. I'm sure someone will be along soon to claim "thriving plants will outcompete algae" but IME that hasn't been true.
Short of the nuclear option I honestly don't know how to get rid of it completely.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Ferts are not so easy to figure out. I had been gardening outdoors for years but once I began working with live plants in tanks I seemd to move my gardening to my glass boxes. I have some tanks with almost 0 algae and others where BBA is a constant battle.

it is alot easier to garden outside than in a glass box. The biggest issue is coming to an understanding of what is going on in each tank. A lot of it has to do with lighting and stocking. Some tanks have many fish and need more trace stuff than macros. Other tanks are the reverse. I have also learned that alhae in a natural thing and one way to deal with it is many plants plus shrimp and fish that will eat it.

I have learned to be happy with the tanks that have little or no algae and to be unable in a few tanks to deal with it effectively. It is typical of life in general, you win some and you lose some.

What is seems to boil down to is finding the rght balances in each tank individually, Lighting, stocking , ferts, plants choices etc. all tend to matter. Since my tanks are all different i have learned that there is no perfect solution. I need to discover what works in each individual tank.

One way to beat back algae is with floating plants. They suck up excess nutrients really well. The problem is they will also reproduce like mad. A couple of months ago I got some frogbit again. Today I have some tanks with their surface totally covered and I am putting bags of frogbit into my monthly could auctions starting last month. When I am losing the battle in a tank, eventually pull out the plants with algae and bleach dip them and then put them back. Sometimes this solves the problem and other times it just return in a month or two.

I used to buy Amano shrimp 50 to 100 at a time imported. I had a 50 gal I called my Amano Wash tank. I would out in an algae covered anubias and 3 hours later it was ckean, That opportunity no longer exists which is why I now use bleach dips.

 

[Zer0Fame]

Hey,

would you happen to have some pictures of your tank? Blackbeard algae can have many reasons (that's why I hate them so much...)

One thing that is not commonly known is, that they seem to sometimes thrive if the tank is high in organics. Quite some people in the plant groups I am part of take the appearance of black beard algae as a sign, that they need to clean the filter again, remove some detritus and/or are feeding a bit too much. That differs greatly from tank to tank though, and "detritus" is not the same as "detritus". (As in detritus that comes from within a long-standing tank can be highly beneficial, detritus because you feed 10 fish as if it were 100 is not beneficial)
Other things that might or might not affect them:

• Too much light (either too strong, too long, or both)
• Phosphates
• Lack of CO2 (they're absolute masters at biogenic decalcification! In fact, it's one of their specialties. They create a literal exoskeleton to be safe from algae eaters)
• Imbalance in trace elements / micro nutrients