# any one tried this bba treatment



## wicca27 (Oct 13, 2008)

i am a member of a guppy forum and came across this and think i will try it as i dont use any ferts and dont really want to take a nice tank apart. its not really bad enough to tear it down so i am goin to try.

http://www.guppies.com/forums/showthread.php/bba-thread-hair-21075.html?t=21075&highlight=bba


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Using hydrogen peroxide has been used for years. I used it just last night for cladophera algae (damn stuff is similar to bba in that nothing eats it). Hydrogen peroxide also kills virtually every type of algae. 

You must be very careful with it though, don't just dump a lot of it into the water and hope, this will probably kill the fish and whatever else is in the tank. It can't be used like flourish excel. Hydrogen peroxide is a very unstable chemical, so it wants to break apart when it comes in contact with a lot of things. When it does it makes very molecules that very powerfully bond with other chemicals (often ripping the other chemicals apart). This is why it kills bacteria on cuts and algae. Their cell membranes are not protected very well and so the chemical has direct access to them. 

The way to use it is to use a syringe and squirt small amounts of the stuff onto problem areas. You will see lots of bubbles when you spray it onto algae, the bubbles come from an enzyme that virtually all living things have that protects them from H2O2. This enzyme is designed to dismantle the chemical to prevent cellular damage (that's why it fizzes when it is sprayed onto a cut). Luckily for us, algae don't have enough of the enzyme to deal with such a huge amount of hydrogen peroxide and it dies the next day. Plants don't seem to be as susceptible as algae, probably because they have a thicker cellular barrier and some residual wax cuticle covering their leaves. Then again, don't just go and soak a plant in the stuff since it die.

Flourish excel is a good alternative for constant maintenance, it is very effective against bba if you use a syringe on it. This works by cross-linking proteins ("fixing" them) in the algae. Algae dies because it doesn't have thick enough membranes protecting the insides of the cells. Some algae seem to be more resistant to this chemical than others though so it seems that it is useful primarily because you can add it to the water column in 2-3x the recommended dose and bba dies wherever it is hiding.

Anti-algae chemicals aren't the solution to long term stability though, good fertilization routines and tank maintenance are.


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## wicca27 (Oct 13, 2008)

my problem is no one in town sells it. i would have to order on line and pay extra for shipping pluse im getting ready to move quite a ways in a couple weeks and had not pland on taking the tank all the way apart so i was wanting something i could try


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

If you mean you can't find hydrogen peroxide, try your local pharmacy, it should be a very common and easy to get disinfectant.

Excel, is sometimes seen in pet stores, but it is usually a lot cheaper to buy it online... www.Bigalsonline.com has it in 2 and 4 liter bottles for roughly 40$ shipped (a very good deal).


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## Evil-Lynn (Apr 6, 2009)

I tried H2O2 spot treatment against hair and BBA and it was quite effective. It didn't do much against green spot algae. Now I just added some to my nano tank, see if it can get rid of some of the BGA I been dealing with. 
Flourish is good too but some plants will melt with it. 

The advantages of H2O2: It's cheaper and you can find it everywhere. Make sure you get the 3 % solution (10 volumes) and DON'T OD. The advantages of Flourish : It won't only get you rid of algae but it will also make your plants grow faster, at least for a short period of time, as long as you DON'T OD either.
Both are equally effective.


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