Brown Gunk On Cabomba

[Amunet]

Just wondering what the heck it is?
It doesn't look like brown algae and when I rub it, it comes off in gooey clumps.

At first I thought it might've been some dead BGA after I had blacked out the tank a while ago, but it's definitely growing and expanding on these.
None of the other plants seem to have this stuff on them though... just the cabomba.
I tryed rubbing as much of it off as I could, but that doesn't seem to do anything to improve it.
This isn't decay.. it's something on the plant.

What is it and what should I do to get rid of it?

 

[Themuleous]

Could it be BBA? There is an excellent aglae ID guide at theplantedtank.co.uk

Sam

 

[Amunet]

Yeah I looked on that website and I can't really tell.
It might be BBA though... bleh.
I have some Excel.. how much should I use to help get rid of it if it is BBA? Or would regular dosing of Excel get rid of it?

 

[Themuleous]

When I want to get rid of BBA, I add a triple dose of the initial/water change dose rate. I.e. the instructions say that

on initial use or after a major (> 40%) water change, use 1 capful (5 mL) for every 40 L (10 gallons*).

So you dose 3x times this, or 15ml per 40l. But I only dose this once. The BBA should turn red which shows its dead and will slowly disintegrate over the next few weeks. If no signs of reddening happen after a week or so then repeat it, but I find a single dose is normally enough.

Sam

 

[Amunet]

So I shouldn't add excel in every day?
I just added in 2 capfuls of it (did a water change yesterday) in the 28gal. Do you think that will be enough or should I go ahead and add one more capful?

 

[Themuleous]

For treating BBA I don't bother with the daily dosing once I've done the first large dose. I don't find its necessary.

I would leave it for a week and see what the BBA is doing, if its not red I would do another 3x initial./water change dose.

BTW I see you have a hillstream? How do you find it? I've got to tiger hillstreams, beautiful fish. Only had them a week and not 100% there are feeding yet, what do you feed yours?

Sam

 

[Amunet]

I absolutely love our hillstream loach! It is such a cute little fish.
It gets SO excited during feeding time.
(I don't know it's sex but I'll call it a He)
When I'm getting ready to feed them and I'm waiting for the frozen food to thaw in the cup, I can see him wiggling all over the glass just waiting for me to pour in the food.
He gets fed what the other fish get.
I feed the tank mainly on frozen brine shrimp and frozen bloodworm and he goes crazy for it... specially the bloodworm (all of the fish love it).
I used to feed the tank only on flake food and algae wafers and he ate those up w/ no problem as well. I think he prefers the frozen stuff though, but I think I'm going to start including the wafers on a more regular basis again.
It's really cute watching him on the gravel when he finds a piece of food. He does this thing where he sticks his 'nose' in the air, up and down up and down.. it's absolutely adorable b/c he looks like a puppet

 

[Themuleous]

Haha cool, I must admit I love my two. Just a bit concerned that I dont see them feeding. But they could just be settling in I guess, as I've only had them just under two weeks. I've held pieces of flake in front of their noses with tweezers and they've not gone for it, so assume that if they were hungry they'd eat it. They aren't supposed to be difficult fish from what Ive read.

Will keep my fingers crossed. There is a huge great rio 600 or 800 filter in the tank and its only 12" long so the flow is crazy fast.

Thanks

Sam

 

[Amunet]

*nods* When we first got our little guy, he didn't seem to eat for a while. Always just stuck to the glass and that was it.
Eventually though (not sure how long), he learned that if he would just detach from the tank walls and go onto the gravel whenever I fed, he'd get some food as well heh. It did take him a while to start doing that though. He was very skittish of me and would dart away at the drop of a hat.

 

[Amunet]

Just an update.. it definitely appears to be BBA. It's on alot more plants and starting to grow on decor and such. BLEH.

I'm not going to do a water change this week as well. Taking the advice of that theplantedtank website and hope it helps.

Dosing w/ the excel doesn't seem to have affected it at all or at least hopefully not yet *crosses fingers* heh

 

[Themuleous]

Did you overdose the excel? If there is lots of BBA it might take a couple of goes to clear it up. If its really bad it might be worth removing most of the really badly affected plants and just keeping the best bits.

Sam

EDIT - crap have just realised, you've got cabomba in the tank, excel tends to kill fine leaves plants like that and hornwort. Oh crap sorry!

 

[Amunet]

Does it? Bleh, well that sucks b/c I love my cabomba lol.

I did overdose w/ the excel. Used 3x the amount.
BBA doesn't appear to be affected by it at all though. Think I'm just gonna have to try to clean it all off manually or something if the excel doesn't work.

 

[Amunet]

I swear, I'm about to just say screw it, throw my hands in the air and let the algae take over the tank.

This is so freaking frustrating. Get rid of the brown algae finally, yay. Oh wait... green algae, boooo... wait what? BGA now? BOOOO.... ok blackout the tank for a few days. Few days later.. yay no more BGA!
Few weeks later... UGH BBA NOW!

(*^!&@&%@!239@!! dang %&2917!9@ tank!

I had to do a water change in the tank today. I just couldn't look at it anymore. The water was starting to get a yellow tinge to it and the BBA is just everywhere. On the decor, plants, just all over the dang place and hard as heck to clean off!

Maybe I'll just let it be and then we'll start over whenever we move later in the year. But then I know we'll just have the same old problem again.............. SIGH.

 

[Themuleous]

Please don't give up, we've ALL been there. My tanks have looked in a shocking state in the past. If you give up now you'll not learn when things go right. Please, please don't give up If the infestation really is that bad, it might be worth stripping the tank down and starting fresh? When I had a BBA outbreak in my 90lt a complete strip down sorted it out, now I get green water, but that's another story!

Its big learning curve in this hobby. And to be honest, I've still not really worked out why some of my tanks have never had algae, whilst some grow it like a farm!

Sam

PS - watched one of my hillstreams munch down a whole piece of flake last night, woohoo!!!!

 

[Amunet]

I don't want to give up but it's just so disheartening sometimes.
I can't start over right now since we're trying to save our money. So I think waiting until we move and have settled in is going to be the time to start over.
I guess right now, all I can do is trying to clean off as much as possible and keep it under control until that time comes.....