Ok ive read up on this but cant seem to get a straight answer on what exactly to do to get rid of it completely. I have a 65 gal tank 36x18x24 with 3x39 w of t5ho, dosing ei for a 40-60 gal tank, rena xp3 filter and pressurized co2 with a rex rigg reactor. I have been having algae problems since the beginning. First i had green water so i bought a uv. then i got blue green algae so 3 day blackout +EM. now i have bba. My co2 is at least 30 ppm using 4dkh water in drop checker and just on the yellow side. I have the lights on for 8 hrs per day. anyway what should i do to get rid of the algae. i have been trimming and cleaning but its spreading faster. this mainly grows on my dwarf hairgrass, microsword, and java fern.

Do you have good water circulation in the tank? Do all of the leaves at least gently sway in the flowing water? Without that the CO2 and nutrient rich water never reaches all of the plants. You could use a powerhead hidden in back somewhere to supplement the circulation.

Once you get a heavy growth of BBA you can't get rid of it without actively killing or removing it. You can remove hardscape and equipment and soak them in a bleach bath - the BBA will turn white. You can prune away stems infested with BBA. And, you can squirt Excel on smaller patches in the tank. Once you kill or get rid of it all, then you have a chance with good tank conditions to avoid its return.

Whats your bioload? How much water do you change per week?

I have some BBA as well. I think it might be because of my bioload (large discus). Basically, I think I need to do more water changes.

I have had some success with directly spraying Excel onto the leaves of the BBA infested leaves (only have experience with anubius leaves). If you dose excel everyday, you can try to spray the excel onto the infested leaves daily. I have successfully killed BBA on driftwood and some anubius leaves doing this until the BBA is gone.

Also, if you are doing a water change and the infested plant/driftwood happens to be out of water, you can add excel directly onto the leaves/driftwood as well. I have noticed moss doesn't like Excel and will die if applying it as described above.

Hi iverson,
This may sound absurd but it's entirely possible that your filter is not delivering a sufficient amount of flow to satisfy the distribution of nutrients/CO2. Filter ratings are a bit optimistic in the first place and they are rated for fish bio-load, not algae reduction in the second place. As Vaughn says you can add a powerhead to help push the water around a bit better or you can upgrade or add another filter. Believe it or not a filtration "rating" of 10X the tank volume per hour (or as close as you can get) would reduce a lot of these issues.

Cheers,

ok the leaves are swayin about 1 inch back and forth but i do have some dead spots. i will add 2 powerheads in these areas . it is generally growing on my hairgrass. only the older established pieces though the new runners are clean. im thinking about redoing the tank but i really want to figure out how to balance everythihng out before i create another mess. I will also trim all this tomorrow. Im doing 50 percent water changes per week. and as as far as bioload i have about 35 fish but they are mostly small younger fish. tetras, guppys, a few cories 2 young whiptail catfish and some ottos. I dont think the tank is overstocked for their size as i will eventually be removing them. Also the nitrates are at approx 10-15 ppm. and im adding kno3 to the tank.

Hi Iverson,

I'm relatively new here, but your situation sounded so similar to my experience, I thought I'd chime in. I have a 55g with a very large piece of driftwood and lots of floating plants. The wood is about 3 feet long and the main trunk sits diagonal along the back only 2 inches from the back glass. I realized I had flow issues when I noticed bba growing in a narrow strip the full length of the wood directly across from the glass. The filter data says it's fine for my 55g, but I created the problem through poor layout of my decorations. Now if I see bba growth in another area, that's the first thing I look for.

Also, I haven't seen this mentioned by anyone else, but when this same piece of wood was hopelessly covered in algae a few months ago, I simply removed it from my tank and proped it up in my bathroom with a small room fan blowing on it for less than a day (about 18 hours), put it back in the tank and all the algae turned a purplish/pink and disappeared.

Trivr

ok i did a trim /bleach dip and added two powerheads but the bba is still spreading. Not as fast but it isnt going away. It is mainly on my java fern, dwarf hairgrass, and micro sword. so i dipped these plants in the bleach solution. i have done this once befor about a month ago and it all went away for a while. Why is the bba still growing how do i stop it? I beleive all my parameters are in check. everywhere i read it says low co2 is the cause but mine is definitely around 30-40ppm. I almost killed my fish the other day but luckily caught it in time. anyway i have to trim/clean daily to keep the algae from getting out of control. Im trying hard to get rid of it but cant find a solution. What else should i try.

I have noticed it takes some time to get rid of BBA. Perhaps wait a few weeks and see what happens?

If you change something in your tank, give it a few weeks before you claim it didn't work.

How is your filter? How many water changes are you doing?

Doing plant bleaching may get rid of the BBA short term but it may not be the core reason on why the BBA was there in the first place.

Read this post:
Too Many Fish?

Are you dosing iron? I know this may go against some general consensus around here, but I have found that if I have an issue with bba to start with, if I go way overboard on my iron dosing it seems to really speed up the bba's growth and others have said this too. I'm not saying it's the cause, but it seems to make things worse in a situation that is already iffy. If you are dosing iron make sure you are doing it within standard parameters and not overdoing it, especially if you have iron in your tap water already.

If this tank is somewhat new (< 3 months) don't give up on it and start over - it takes time for plants to adapt to their environment, and in the meantime algae is more likely to become an issue, especially if parameters are changing a lot. Simply keeping things stable with regular maintenance for a month or so while doing as much manual removal of the algae as possible could eventually solve most of the issue.

Well ive had the algae for about 2 weeks now and there is more everyday. I will trim all leaves wit bba then the next day it will reappear somewhere else. I have recently added powerhead to increase flow but the algae is still contantly growing in these areas. It is also growing on the jets of the spraybar. I am not currently dosing iron and dont believe im overstocked. I have 10 cardinal tetras, 15 guppys (most less than half inch-4 at 1.5 inches), 4 otocinclus, 2 corydoras (2 in), 2 whiptail catfish( 3 in), and 3 small balas(2.5 in) which will be moved once they get larger.