Help with Black beard algae.

[Coryking]

So for a while now I've had black beard algae. It's starting to get quite bad now, I'll attach some photos. It's mainly on my Amazon swords, sagittaria and my hydroponics plants roots. I tried removing it by hand but it just won't come off without me removing the whole leaf/root. Is there any treatment for it or any fish that eat it? Thanks.

 

[FishBR]

For anyone to give meaningful advice, there is a lot of information missing. Just to start: What is the tank size? How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change? What fish do you have in the tank and how much and how often do you feed them? What lighting fixture do you use and how long are the lights? What is the substrate? Do you use fertilizes?

 

[Coryking]

For anyone to give meaningful advice, there is a lot of information missing. Just to start: What is the tank size? How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change? What fish do you have in the tank and how much and how often do you feed them? What lighting fixture do you use and how long are the lights? What is the substrate? Do you use fertilizes?

Thank you for the reply. The tank is a fluval Roma 125, with a 10w sansi grow bulb lighting it that is on for about 10 hours. I am currently doing weekly 25% water changes. My substrate is pond soil with a slight amount of aqua soil mixed in capped with sand. I don't use any fertilisers. My stocking is;
1x Flash pleco (Panaqolus albivermis)
About 9x adult endlers (Poecilia wingei)
6x Albino bronze Corydoras (Corydoras aeneus)
5x glass catfish (Kryptopterus vitreolus)
4x honey gourami (Trichogaster chuna)
I am feeding twice a day once when the lights turn on (flakes and granules) and a smaller amount of just flake when I turned the light off for my glass catfish.

 

[MattW]

I have BBA currently overtaking my Crinum. I also had it in the past and managed to get rid of it sort of. I went on holiday and forgot to put my lights on automatic mode so there was no light apart from natural in my tank for just over a week. I came back to the BBA pretty much gone. Now it's back again Usually IME algae is caused by an imbalance of one of the many things @FishBR said.

 

[FishBR]

I just got algae under control in my 55g, including a bad BBA infestation. What you need to achieve is balance in your system in terms of lighting, nutrients available for both plants and algae, and amount of organic waste. Here are my suggestions to each factor:

- Reduce the time the lights are on. Your plants do not need more than 6 or 7 hours.
- Get some fast growing plants, such as Egeria Densa, Vallisneria, water wisteria. You want your plants to consume the nutrients before the algae does.
- Reduce the amount the organic waste by making larger water changes and making sure you vacuum any dead organic matter and uneaten food.

You can not clean BBA but you can kill it by applying hydrogen peroxide directly on it with a syringe (you can read more about it online).

I hope that helps.

 

[Coryking]

I just got algae under control in my 55g, including a bad BBA infestation. What you need to achieve is balance in your system in terms of lighting, nutrients available for both plants and algae, and amount of organic waste. Here are my suggestions to each factor:

- Reduce the time the lights are on. Your plants do not need more than 6 or 7 hours.
- Get some fast growing plants, such as Egeria Densa, Vallisneria, water wisteria. You want your plants to consume the nutrients before the algae does.
- Reduce the amount the organic waste by making larger water changes and making sure you vacuum any dead organic matter and uneaten food.

You can not clean BBA but you can kill it by applying hydrogen peroxide directly on it with a syringe (you can read more about it online).

I hope that helps.

Thank you for the information. I will slowly lower the time my lights are on. I already have some vallisneria along side some Ricca and limnophila. The vall doesn't grow that fast for me but the other two need trimming every two weeks or so. I will try to do larger water changes. I already have a small amount of hydrogen peroxide from a fungus gnats infestation so I will read up on using it in the aquarium.