# Black Algae



## jeremy1 (May 6, 2007)

I have clusters of black aglae growing on my drift wood and rocks and plant leafs. Does anyone know what kind of algae this is? It is difficult to remove manually. Will excel work on this stuff. Thanks Jeremy


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Sounds to me that you have black beard algae (BBA). Usually a sign of low C02 levels or fluciating C02 with DIY use. You can spot treat with Excel, add SAE's & increase C02 levels.


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## Amazon_Replica (Nov 24, 2007)

Yea boost or control Co2. If it were my tank I'd also add some otocinclus, they wont necessarily eat the BBA but they will eat its food source, and they like to keep the plants clean.


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## jeremy1 (May 6, 2007)

Thanks guys, Had no idea this was due to low co2 levels. Will take it up a notch or two. 

Jeremy


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## Mr. Fish (Oct 24, 2007)

Yea its due to Low Co2 or Flactuating Co2.
Most effictive way to get rid of it is using Flourish Excell,
just turn off your Filter, use a syringe and just squirt it on your
Leaf letting it float for a sec then eventually it will turn red and die off
look at my leaf below Im killing some now:


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

In my experience, there seem to be 2 kinds of BBA. One is like Mr.Fish's picture where the BBA grows in single strands from the leaf, and the second kind is BBA that grows from a single point and looks somewhat like a little sea urchin with short (~0.5 inch) straight strands of algae rather than twisting long strands.

The one in Mr.Fish's picture dies off pretty easily in response to increasing CO2 (and/or Excel), the short bushy kind responds to NOTHING except Excel. I swear I removed all my fish and gunned the CO2 till the water fizzed like soda for weeks and it kept growing. Only x2-x3 doses of excel killed it and kept it away.

Excel will quickly kill all BBA and keep it away for months even after you stop dosing. But increasing CO2 will definately help.


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## Mr. Fish (Oct 24, 2007)

Yea I'm trying to get rid of that stuff for good....
I hate it, makes all my plants look ugly... So once its gone I'm not
gonna stop dosing Excell... Im gonna keep up with doses but prolly cut down to every other day...


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