Possibly Bba And How To Remove

[dave_m13]

Hi All

I think that I have some sort of BBA growing in my tank, its slow growing and starts on the edges of leaves, it turns the edges black then I start to see black threads come out.

The parameters in my tank

365 Litres
About 2WPG
0 Amm
0 Nitrite
10 Nitate
0.5 Phosphate
7.2-7.6 PH

I think this way round but cannot remember
GH is 240ppm, very hard water
KH - 90ppm

I have added CO2 I have a sochtang carbonator, which is supposed to be for tanks upto 250litres, also a nutrafin co2.

I add Flourish, Florish Iron twice weekly

I have just got some flourish phosphate/Nitrogen and potassium (Will adding this make a diference do you think?)

Also I have a Flying fox at the moment, do you think if I get a couple of SAE will they get along? I have heard that they eat BBA.

Any Advise help appreciated.

Thanks
Dave

 

[alanchown]

People have had good results overdosing with Flourish Excel. Google for BBA and Flourish Excel. There have also been discussions on this forum regarding this, so search here too.

Alan

 

[dave_m13]

Thanks, I am just reading through the various discussions, by the looks of it I probably do not have enough CO2 for my tank, so I may try add some more. I have Flourish Excel so I will try the over dosing technique from Zig on the forum.

Thanks
Dave

 

[dave_m13]

What would people recommend doing,

I can either overdose with Flourish Excel? How much Flourish Excel would I need for overdosing on a 365 Litre tank?

Or try and add more CO2, would this cause further issues, I do not have pressurised.

Or do I try and up my Phosphates? I do a half RO/ Half tap water on water changes, so I think the phosphates are being removed.

What are peoples opinions?
Thanks
Dave

 

[Themuleous]

Also try increasing NO3 to 20ppm, BBA is often because of to little NO3.

To overdose excel, just start of with the recommended amount on the bottle then increase to 2x on the second day, then 3x on the thrid day, does 3x for 7-14 days or for however long it takes to turn the BBA white.

Dont take this the wrong way, but I have found that BBA is often a symptom of not doing enough tank maintenance, how much and how often do you do water changes?

HTH

Sam

 

[dave_m13]

Hi

Thanks for the info.

No thats ok, I do water changes every 2 weeks, change about 25%. I did use just tap water to make water changes, I could tell by testing the water that a water change was needed by taking Nitrate readings, after water change it would be about 10 by the 2nd week it would be 30-40. Now since adding half RO/ half tap water the Nitrates are staying very low all the time usually 10. I have 2 pretty decent filters running on the tank.

I have the Seachem range but will probably need to get more excel.

What about CO2, do you think I should add more.

Also I mentioned SAE's on a different part of the site but was not recommended them due to the flying fox I have, I have also read on the web that people have kept them together. Supposedly they eat BBA.

Thanks
Dave

 

[dave_m13]

Any further Info from anyone

Thanks