# beard algae sux



## john weber (Sep 1, 2005)

hello, i have 12 exotic freshwater angelfish, the wild two I have are 8 inches in diameter...which is huge, anyway, i know what i am doing when it comes to freshwater aquariums.

i have had a beard algae for sometime. I am so tired of rinsing my plants in 20/1 bleach solution for 2 minutes every 2 weeks (the delicate ones turn to lace and disentigrate), so tired of taking out my driftwood to allow to dry in the sun for 2 days, so tired of soaking all of my filter, pumps in bleach! i cannot get rid of the stuff. i have tried more frequent water changes, every chemical and algae product that is out there, the water testing is perfect, no phosphates, yet the stuff persists. i have even lessened my lighting and lessened the kelvin rating. I have tried every algae eating fish from mollies, siamese algae eaters to florida flag fish...also shrimp.

why cant someone come up with a simple way to irradicate this stuff. it takes the fun out of owning a freshwater aquarium.

thanks for your time


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

A few questions, are you fertilizing or adding CO2? 

In my experience having low amounts of ferts or CO2 in the water column can lead to an outbreak of BBA. The only way to remove it is manual removal (bleach, scraping, etc.) There is a thread on here about using Flourish Excel you may want to read up on. The Excel will remove the BBA but you will need to keep on top of your ferts and CO2 to keep it from reappearing! Once you treat the cause you will no longer have to treat the symptoms


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