# What causes Black Beard Algae?



## JerryB

Just as the title says, and how do i get rid of it? My tank is 55 gallons, pressurized co2, ph 7.0, kh is around 7 (i think), i add seachem excel, flrouish, iron, phosphorus, potassium, iodine. My substrate is seachem fourite, and I have 3 amazon swords, 1 red lugwidia, 41 corkscrew val, 10 micro chain sword (2 big ones, rest are runners), 2 dwarf sag, 2 bananna plants, 3 barclaya, 2 dwarf liliies, 1 tiger lilly, 1 brazillian pennywort, 1 water sprite, and some that i have no idea what they are.

The BBa only gets on the smaller plants, and some on the bigger plants but not as much, what causes it, how do i get rid of it and how can i prevent it from coming back?


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## Jason Baliban

Hey,
The short short is to make sure that your ferts are always in check and your CO2 is stable and above 30 ppms. You didnt mention your lighting or what your other water parms are. If you want to post all your info, im sure we could dig deeper into your issue.
jB


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## JerryB

Lights: 4.4 WPG power compact, 2x 10k, 2x 6.5k

Water params: PH: 7.0, kh 7

I dont have tests for anything else though, I just follow the directions on the bottles of ferts that I add.


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## Jason Baliban

With that much lighting, you are going to run into issues with ferts and CO2. You have put yourself in the category of high tech tank. With this in mind you will have to learn some things about macro nutrients, as well as micro nutrients. There are two really informative methods right now. EI and PPS. You will find EI here....http://www.barrreport.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1 , and you can find the PPS discussion as a sticky on this forum.
Without learning to balance these things, that much light is going to run you into problems. Talk a look at those methods and ask more questions. we will get you there.
jB


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## trenac

Jerry... Increasing your C02 to 30ppm will help out a lot, you are no setting around 20ppm.

Also from what I have read BBA is a nutrient starved algae, so increasing micro nutrients will also help. 

With 4.4WPG you will need to get a good all around balance in all aspects of the planted tank.


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## plantbrain

Several past test at very low nutrient levels(beyond the resolution of Lamotte and Hach kits) showed no impact on BBA for PO4/NO3.

Stable 30ppm CO2 will stop the growth. It will not kill what is there now.
Trimming is the single best things you can do for the plants and bleaching equipment, scrubbing glass etc is the best thing for the non living items.

Do not bleach plants. They end up looking horrible after wards and all ratty.
These leaves offer nothing to the plant and do not help the plant grow any better.

Balancing the nutrients is easy.
You can rule those out with eI, then move on to the CO2 which is why you have the BBA in the first place.

Regards, 
Tom Barr

www.BarrReport.com


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## JerryB

Well the numbers are in, I went to the LFS and purchased some tests and the results are as follows:

First off one of my 6.5k lights burnt out, so i went to the LFS and purchased 2 new bulbs but they are 6.7k instead, and they are 65 watts not 55, my WPG changed from 4.4 to 4.8 now.

ph: 6.9
KH: 4
GH:5
PO4: .5
NO3: Less than 1
FE: Less than 1
CO2 (came with FE test) shows 14 PPM

I guess my problem is that I'm using RO water and the KH has gone down significantly since the last time I tested, I want the water to be soft for when I take the dive and do Discus, but perhaps you guys are right, my CO2 level is quite low, according to some charts it is sitting around 8.3, but I have also heard that adding peat to the water decreases the KH and throws off the co2 reading from the chart http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm and does not read accuratly and possibly why my co2 test shows 14ppm.

I need to get my co2 level up, that is known, but how do I do that, I have a DIY reactor which I'm finding out is junk, so next month I will be buying a real inline co2 reactor, but for the time being i'll just crank up the co2, i'm doing about i'm guessing 5-7 bubbles per second, so i'll increase the co2 output, and lower my PH controller to turn off around 6.7 rather than the 6.9 that it is at right now.

I guess other info you may want to know is that I do a 30% water change every other week, I do not gravel vac the substrate, instead I just suck the water out near the mid tank area, and if there is any decay at the bottom i'll suck that out as well.

I do get some of that green algea on the glass, so i'll turn off all the pumps, scrap the glass then procede with water change.

Another downfall I have is that I have a Sump in my system, and untill I move I wont do anyting about it, I have plans to add an Eheim 2026 and use the existing over flow and return to plumb the canister, but untill then I cant do much about it.

Oh please masterful guru's of the planted tanks, tell me what you think, Tell me what my levels should be, what I need to do to increase them and I will follow.

More (possible) pertinant info:

Substrate: 40# seachem flourish, 10# epoxy coated black gravel
Pressurized co2 with regulator and controller
Fish: 2 bala sharks, 10 neon's, 1 bushy nose pleco, 1 flying fow (fake SAE), 1 real SAE, 1 blue ram, 1 clown loach, 4 amano shrimp, 2 fancy tail rosie barbs.

Thanx for listening guys, you rock the House!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [smilie=k:


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## |squee|

You're using a sump, which isn't the best for keeping C02 in your water. You'll have to pump that C02 darn good.


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## plantbrain

If you use a sump(I've used them on many tanks with CO2), make sure you rise the overflow's level to about 3-4" below the tank's level.

If it's 12" you are losing the CO2 there.
The section below should have all of the air vents in the dry section duct taped up.

That will cure that.

A 55 gal might need a bubble per second if you set things up right.
DIY reactors work FYI as well as anything made.
100% is a 100%.

Your tap(?) seems fine for Discus, no need for RO, don;t monkey with that if you don't have to. I've consistently bred Discus at KH of 5-6 and GH's at 9.

Adding more KH will not add more CO2.
Adding more gas will add more CO2.

Just adjust for the KH/pH relationship and target 30ppm.

You also raise discus, if you feed a lot, plan on doing either one 60-70% weekly change or 2x 30-40% weekly changes.

You have way too much light on this tank.
Reduce it by turning on only one bank of lights for 10 hours, and the other for 3hours at midday.

So 130w are on all 10 hours, then 260w for 3 hours.

There is no plant you cannot grow just fine at 130w in the tank.
More light is not better, it does place more demand on the CO2 system.
Don't use peat except in very small amounts for the substrate only.
You don't need it nor do the fish.

Regards, 
Tom Barr

www.BarrReport.com


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## Laith

What are your tap water parameters? Unless you're planning on breeding Discus (and even then I've seen Discus bred at what most would consider water that was "too hard") or you have abnormally high chemical levels in your tap water, you don't need RO.

In conjunction with getting your CO2 levels up to 30mg/l and keeping them there, you also want to raise your NO3 levels to between 10 and 20mg/l. 1mg/l of NO3 is not near enough.

If you raise your CO2 levels and keep your Nitrate levels at 1mg/l you'll replace the CO2 deficiency with NO3 deficiency...

I'd also get the PO4 levels up to between 1 and 2mg/l.

By the way, those Bala sharks you have will very quickly outgrow a 55g tank... And I wouldn't keep Bala sharks in the same tank as Discus; their temperaments are too different.


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## niko

I'd try to vacuum the substrate as much as I can every time when doing a water change. Water changes have to be more frequent because visible and invisible organics accumulate in the gravel and the water. Two times a week as Tom said would be what I'd do.

Amano shrimp seem to bother the BBA constantly but can't eat it. Still, their more or less constant harassment seems to reduce the algae at least a little.

Stable environment seems to gradually, but very slowly (months) reduce BBA. That means very consistent water changes, CO2, and fertilizing.

Also try Fluorish Excel, some people have had good results with it.

In any case - remember that if the algae infestation is too bad it's easier to start the tank from scratch.

--Nikolay


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## JerryB

Too much light you say? I know this is not a Saltwater tank, but from what I have seen on other forums that my ammount of wattage is good for my tank.

The sump is setup how one of you guys said, the overflow and the drainage pipe is less than 3" between the water level and the pipe, i tried to do that so the less water agitation the better, but once I get the canister filter things will change I think because the co2 will be more efficently disolved into the water.

How do I get the NO3, and PO4 levels up, any good way to do that?


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## czado

I sump too, and its whats happening at your wet/dry that will have the most loss ime. If you're confident of your CO2 levels though I suppose you should roll with it. I have some stubborn algae thats either BBA or fuzz with high CO2, too, fwiw. 

re: NO3 and PO4. At 4.4wpg you'll likely need command of NPK and micro nutrients, and theres much good info in archives here and Mr. Barr's website under EI. GregWatson.com has KNO3 and KH2PO4, which will likely meet your macro needs (though you should go ahead and get K2SO4 too because if you don't, you'll likely wish you did if you're the experimenting type -- trust me  ), and he has Plantex CSM and Fe chelate, too. If you'd rather buy stuff locally for a little more money, you can get KNO3 as stump remover (Grant's or GreenLight), K for sulfate/muriate of potash or from KCL water softener, and PO4 from Fleet enema bags or a variety of phosphate ferts at most any plant nursery/home improvement store.


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## JerryB

I dose the following:

Seachem Flourish
Seachem Excell
Seachem Iron
Fleet Enemia (child version)
Iodine (for inverts)
Seachem Potassium


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## axhuki

how to remove bb.algae


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## Yo-han

Hard labor! No serious, remove as much as possible, if you've a big tank, buy some Crossocheilus siamensis, they are the only algae eater who eats this. In a small tank you can try killing the algae with spot treatments of H2O2 or excel.


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## herns

Here's a similar thread.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=188822

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=23


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## rostick555

+2 on what Tom said. I have bred discus and raised discus in straight tap. Also I have done 125 gallon discus display tank and until I did what Tom said with the lights I had all kinds of algae issues. You just have to find the right balance for your system.


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