Borman, the tank has very little plant biomass.

I would really consider doing more frequent water changes.
This will not help the BBA.

Peroxide sort of works, but it can kill plants and fish as well if you add too much.
Be very careful.

I prune BBA off and with good fast plant growth, have never had an issue in the last 15 years or so.

It's generally CO2 almost every time.
The Riccia is a nice plant to help you here with CO2.

If you see bubbles on the Riccia about 1-2 hours into the light cycle, then you are in goods shape.

Also, notice how the Riccia looks after a water change. do the water change in the morning right after the light's come on.

Compare the amount of growth you see then versus the days you do not do a water change.

You can dose right after the water change and this will keep plenty of nutrients and CO2 in the water. So the system will be more stable.

You are removing everything and re setting the aquarium each time you do a water change. By dosing thereafter, you are adding back a known amount of nutrients.

As far as the Redfield ratio, there have been many that are a poor understanding of what the ratio means.

It is an atomic ratio, they only talk about Numbers of atoms, not their molar weight.

We use weight mostly for dosing nutrients.

So 1:16 P: N Redflied Ratio(RR), is 30.97 for P and 14.01 for N.

If you convert this to weight mass, now you have 30.97/14.01 = ~ 2.2 X less than than the RR assumes.

Or about 1:7.

The aquarist have made the mistake by assuming they mean mass, not ratio of atoms. So they are 2.2 X off in their measurement.

Simple mistake, but a big error!

If you look at the N:P ratios for most aquatic plant from the research, they are 5:1 to 10:1, with an average of about 6-7:1. N:P.

The RR is not wrong really, the application was/is.

Sadly, even after pointing this out to several web sites, they still choose to keep promoting this error.

Ignorance is one thing, willful stupidy is quite another.
We should try not to be the latter

Regards,
Tom Barr

2 Tom Barr

So 3x water changing by 50-60% and right after dosing NPK for 2 day..? - coorect?



Yes in 2 hour after light is on the riccia is full of bubbles - but how it "help" with CO2? - you mean it eat 02 during night and evaporate C02 ? and "holding" co2 level by this?


So now I have PO4:NO3 is 1:24 - its too low? - I made it taking into account that I feed fishes with dry feed ....
Need I to encrease this ratio - or in my unstale situation can keep it?

Also I dosing trace and few every day - shell I continue it?

Thanks

So... fighting but really no result.... Im nervous a lot. Dont want to restart tank...

So I made as suggested

Water changing 3 per week 60% and after it dosing 2x day NPK+Mg
Micro+Fe every day.
Light 3-4-3
9-12 - 144 WT T8 (20 cm from surf - big loses)
12-16 144wt+150wt MH
16-19 144 wt

I made stable co2 injection 3 bubbles per second from CO2Tank
Check my tanks`s KH - 5,5 - 6 and PH 6,8 - so its about 38 mg/l
Also D.Checker with KH4 is green-yellow and with tank water is green
CO2 on - 2 hour before light and out with light out.

I remved as much as possible BBA infected plant but - BBA is seems stronge over me.. Its also on stones and woods...

Help me out
May be try blackout methd..?

I'm coming up on 2 yrs on this forum and when I set up my first EI tank I had both BBA and BGA.

On all my subsequent run ins I did 2 50% water changes a week, watch the co2, and dose excel to suppress algae. I also pay much closer attention now to circulation and pruning. Even on small tanks where the usi of a power filter is common I still stick a power head on the tank because I don't think power filters do a very good job of circulating. Don't underestimate the importance of good water circulation.

When I got the bba and bga I increased circulation, increased water changes to 2 -3 50% changes a week vacuumed, cleaned, pruned, dosed excel ,and used an antibiotic for the bga. For the plants that had the bba I pruned the plant. If all the leaves are covered I tossed the plant or tried a dip in a weak bleach solution.

If you look at my run in strategy I do the things that many people do after they get algae. A little extra work up front really pays off. This method has worked very well for me. However, in your case you got hit unusally fast.

In the end it's a lot less work to prevent algae than to fight it.

I do 3 changes 50-60% per week


I made CO2 quite stable. About excel - here is not possibility to get this one. May be try H202 - but in which proportion to not harm plant, fishes and shrimps.
Circulation - as you can see on pictures I add DIY CO2 mist reactor - it stand in opposite side of filter outlet and made good circulation.

So for example if the upper leaves of Hygrophilla polysperma is without BBA but all lower one is infecter - I mut cut all infected leaves? - correct?

Sorry, where I can look on your strategy?






Yes you right - unusally fast - I think its beacause unstable CO2 and starting dosing NPK and Micro not the week 2.

Oh.. help me God with this fight

[quote=borman;26341]I do 3 changes 50-60% per week


I made CO2 quite stable. About excel - here is not possibility to get this one. May be try H202 - but in which proportion to not harm plant, fishes and shrimps.
Circulation - as you can see on pictures I add DIY CO2 mist reactor - it stand in opposite side of filter outlet and made good circulation.


So for example if the upper leaves of Hygrophilla polysperma is without BBA but all lower one is infecter - I mut cut all infected leaves? - correct?


Sorry, where I can look on your strategy?



Borman,

I do not know about dosing H2O2. If your plants do not sway I don't think you have enough circulation.

If the upper leaves of your polysperma are clean prune them and replant the tops.

My run in strategy is in my post.

Henry

You need a lot more PO4.
2.5X more.

Fish food has a lot more N than P in general.
Depends on what type, but most dry foods will have more N waste.

The nutrients while important, are less of an issue.
Main problem is CO2.

That is what you need to really focus on.
Adding an SAE (Siamese algae eater) can help, but they cannot be expected to handle a bad case and the plants are still not doing as well since they are not getting enough CO2.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Tom.

Im stable my CO2 as you see from previous post. Some of the plants (H.polysperma) have good grows with big upper leaves. Lower leaves is infrcted with BBA. Also Glossostigma grows slowly, I prune infected leaves every day. New leaves on Glooso is really small and not gorw fast.
I get out all my H.microntemum today will delete all infected stems and replant it.
Actually I scare about BBA which on woods, stones etc. how deal with it.

To get rid of the BBA on the wood and other dead materials in the aquarium: you can do a large water change and expose the objects to the air.

Then you can use H2O2, peroxide, even concentrated solution of KH2PO4, then dribble it on the infected area.

You may use a spray bottle also to make spreading the H2O2 over the area easier.
Wait 2-5 minutes and then fill the aquarium. Do not use much(not more than 5-10mls per 10-20 gal of aquarium).

You may do a water change again after this process to remove any excess H2O2.
This may be repeated as often as needed or desired.

This can allow you to add more H2O2 without harm to the fish.

Alternatively, you can catch the fish and place them in another container while you treat and then do a large water change afterwards.

A few good sprays with the bottle ought to kill any BBA it comes into contact with, some 10mls ought to get most of it, I think most spray bottle use about 1 ml or so, maybe less , maybe more, you can also measure what 10 sprays = into a measuring bottle to see, then divide by 10 to get the volume.

Still, 2-3 good sprays ought to do it.
Any objects you can remove easily can be bleached or H2O2 separately in a bucket for as long as you need.


Regards,
Tom Barr