# Anubias care question



## rjfurbank (Jan 21, 2008)

Hello--I have really enjoyed this site and have learned a lot. Now for my question:

I have Anubias on wood with lots of BBA on the leaves. I have dipped them once in dilute bleach solution which helped but some of the older leaves still have a lot of black spots which are difficult to remove. Is it a good idea to remove the old leaves? If so where do you clip? They are quite tall.

Thanks,

Roy


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## Squawkbert (Jan 3, 2007)

Otos and some shrimp may help w/ BBA removal. You may be pleasantly surprised at what they can recover from. I would leave the leaves as Anubias leaves grow slowly. If they *really* start to look bad, trim them at their bases.


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## MarkyMark (May 20, 2004)

Actually, with Anubias, as an alternative to trimming (ie, using scissors), if you bend the leaves back against the direction of growth all the way they pop off very neatly - and you're not left with ugly, spiky, algae attracting stumps!

How you remove the leaves is a personal choice, but I prefer to snap them off as described above.

Good luck with your Anubius - they are fantastic little plants - I love 'em!

Mark


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## rjfurbank (Jan 21, 2008)

Thank you both for your comments.

I am new to planted tanks and am thoroughly enjoying it! The anubias are some of the oldest plants in my tank(~6-8 months) and still show a lot of the evidence of my poor care before I started getting more serious and reading this site.

The leaves still are pretty much covered in black/green material that I can barely remove w/ my fingernail. After I dipped them the algae on the edges turned bright red (~1 month ago). What's left does not seem to be being eaten by my otos or SAE's or changing at all (either decreasing or increasing). I have been dosing excel (3x) for ~2 weeks.

Are there any other options for removing this material? Should I dip them again or remove some of the leaves? Or just wait?

Thanks!


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## Tokyobaby (Jul 26, 2007)

I did the bleach dip method as well as remove some of the uglier leaves...

how long did you bleach for? Anubias is a tough plant and can handle a full 3 minutes, I managed to get all of my algae off using this method. The really ugly leaves with holes/marks I did the same as MarkyMark - just snapped them off from the bottom of the leaf stem - this leaves it looking neat...though remember that Anubias grows pretty slowly so you may not want to remove too many leaves.

Not sure about excel as I've never used it.


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## oregon aqua (Jan 30, 2008)

i have used excel for BBA removal and i have to say WOW! it works great takes about 7 to 10 days but the plants love it and the BBA goes bye bye. 

now for the "but" if you dont find out why you have BBA it will be back on anubis before i started excel treatment i would pinch off the leafs at the rhizome and i would get one or 2 new leaves near that spot.

their are a ton of posts about excel for BBA and other algae and its ingredient glutaralhyde. all tho seachem cant say its an algaecide because of all the testing they would have to do their are some scientist who have tested glutaralhyde and its affects on marine algae.

here is my test with pictures
http://forum.aquatic-gardeners.org/viewtopic.php?t=997
here is why excel is good for plants
http://www.dow.com/public_images/pc&T/ucarsan-aerobic-aquatic-metabolism-fig1.jpg
here is a post about using the glut instead of excel
http://www.aquariumlife.com.au/showthread.php?t=2407

here is a post about using H2o2 but i dont like this method and neither due some plants/fish
http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquainfo/algae_peroxide.html


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