How I got rid of my BBA outbreak - I tried all the regular options like (and not necessarily in this order, I just listed as the I was thinking about I did) Hydrogen Peroxide 3%, Flourish Excel, the standard clean up crew fish/algae eaters ( I had a pleco in the tank when the outbreak happened), remove plants, remove manually the BBA, more fertilizer, less fertilizer, add more plants (my tank was already a jungle, by ok I still tried), clean the tank more, more frequent water changes, turn lights down, shorten light time, even down to 0, etc. The BBA always came back, and with a vengeance. When I was ready to throw in the towel and tear down the tank and start over, I saw an article on Florida Flag Fish. I figured I would give it one more try, so I went to my LFS and bought a group of 4 baby Florida Flagfish and brought them home, drip acclimated, and put them in my tank. I was shocked as they went right to work on the BBA, and I had BBA everywhere (on the glass, all the hardscape, all the plants, the stuff was even growing on some of my snails’ shells. So I waited, and watched as the BBA slowly disappeared, and in 2 weeks the BBA was almost gone. By the end of 3 weeks I couldn’t find any BBA’ The tank was clean and so pretty again. Even today, a couple of years later, whenever a sprig of BBA appears which is rare I ever see a sprig of BBA, it is gone in a day or less. My Florida Flagfish are voracious BBA eaters. They solved my problem. They saved my tank. I have heard others that say their Flagfish don’t eat much BBA, if any, but mine cleaned my tank completely. Maybe it was because I had 4 instead of one or 2, maybe because they were young and growing (but they still love to eat BBA today as adults). I don’t know why, but they are deadly to BBA. It isn’t because I don’t feed them either. It is a community tank and they get what everyone else gets. I see them scarfing the food with the others in the tank. They are eating plenty. I think my group just loves the BBA. So I always recommend Flagfish when someone asks how I get rid of BBA. I will say that that tank, and that one time I had BBA was the only time I have had a major BBA outbreak in any of my tanks. That’s my BBA story and hopefully it will help someone else. I do know I hate BBA, it is ugly, tough nasty stuff and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
Another point, be careful with Phosphate removal. Robust plant growth requires phosphate, and like nitrogen you can starve your plants by removing too much phosphate
If I ever get it, now I know for sure the right way to deal with it, and naturally like everything in fish keeping it happens in steps and stages as to a giant change all at once. Perfect 👍 😊
After dealing and conquering BBA for 10 years, I agree BBA has to do with having high nutrient levels in the water. Three ways to deal with it, 1. Reduce your fish load 2. Promote robust plant growth, 3. Water changes and detritus removal. On the topic of robust plant growth, i remove a small bucket of surplus plant growth every two weeks. Many aquarists have planted tanks that look like the plants are hibernating - not actively growing and not helping reduce nutrient load. As an example I have to add sodium nitrate to my 200 gallon- otherwise the plants starve because the high fish load does not supply sufficient nutrients.
Also, be sure to use plants that are fast growing. Things like anubias grow too slowly to starve out the algae in my experience. I have anubias, but it is plants like rotala, pogostemon stellatus, water sprite, hornwort, etc, that pull a lot more nutrients. And using large amounts of pothos is incredible at keeping nitrates down. My 40 breeder never goes above 10ppm, and that's with no water changes and adding easy green! The only thing I really do is top offs to replace evaporation. Maybe 2-3 water changes per year just to keep Kh in range.
floating plants like water sprite and dwarf water lettuce to a good job of excess nutrient removal, and growing rapidly. Both get their CO2 from the atmosphere since their topside is exposed to the air.
In conjunction with other likely factors, in my the experience, the BBA only has appeared in the direct hight flow parts of my tanks. Panda garras seem to work quite well in consuming it.
Yep I think we all have struggle with BBA a time or two. and like you said many of thing you have tried don't hurt. I do agree that the more plants you have it will over time starve out all kinds of algae not just BBA. My 40 Breeder is a planted forest and i have very little issue with algae
Just starting the black-beard battle in my 90. I also read in a recent article on the importance of not "over" dosing on the fertilizer being added in the water column. As you mention, adding more plants helps to create conditions where they out compete with algae for nutrient requirments. I did just acquire 5 SAE's which later I hope to move to my 125 cichlid tank when they get larger and more aggressive. But for now? -- time to order more plants!
I’ve found that adding any fertilizers at all (other than root tabs) will complicate the black algae problem. In fact, additional algae black and green will develop over night immediately after dosing. This has been my experience…
I've gotten BBA in high-light tanks, low-light tanks, high-flow tanks, low-flow tanks, tanks with CO2 and tanks without, new tanks, older tanks, tanks with higher nitrates, and tanks measuring 10ppm nitrates. After all these years, I'm not even sure there is a definitive cause! I do think stalled plant growth...and *especially* if you experience a die-back in plants for whatever reason...plays a part in getting it, even if you're still keeping nitrates low in the tank while that's happening. I also agree healthy plant growth can limit its spread, but I haven't seen that eradicate it entirely once it's there. I have a 40 breeder that was going great, but then plant growth stalled when I mixed up the fish stock and BBA appeared and spread pretty aggressively. Then I got the tank back on track and now I have massive plant growth. The BBA that was on the dwarf sag that had been dying back a bit disappeared once the sag started healthy growth again, but to this day I still have small tufts of the BBA on the driftwood. I've made peace with it being there since it hasn't spread in months. That's how it usually goes for me. I have tanks with no BBA, but the ones that get it, I just aim for a stalemate, which usually works. SAEs have worked for me in the past, but I don't really like them. They get kind of big and are always obnoxious. Haven't seen any other fish, snail, or shrimp eat it. Anyway, sorry for the long post, just adding my experiences to the mix in case it helps anyone!
You explain it correctly 👍 Also very low nutrients will cause algae also in my systems that they are full of plants I need to stay on the top of dosing and adjust it on the amount of plants I have or I get algae not black but I get green hair . Take care .
I got rid of mine with just adding a couple of Siamese algae eaters. Made no other changes. Some of the plants were so covered that they looked like hairy Sasquatch legs :)
A 5 water change dose of Algexit cured mine. When it started to die off my 5 SAE's s finished it off and have kept it away. SAE's need to be kept as individuals or in groups to prevent territorial aggression amongst themselves. They leave other fish alone.
Spot treat with Seachem Excel using syringe. Turn off filter for 15 minutes while you do this. Keep nitrates under 60-80 ppm consistently. Only leave light on when you’re home and looking at aquarium. Works every time I promise. Personally, I’d stay away from fertilizers.
I can't get any plants to grow because of diatoms....can't even get green algea to grow so any plants i put in get covered by brown crud and die so they can't consume any nutrients 😂 even Val gets covered and withers away.
Ben , I know you're not a Texan , but we have a saying here that you should adopt. " I may not always be right, but I aint never wrong ! " or " I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken "
Ben, Great follow up video. I am dealing with this in my 20 long the BBA is crazy. I did trim back some of the plants and that had the black algae on it. I am debating on adding a SAE in there. Do you think they get to big for a 20 long? I want this stuff gone it makes the plants look so strange lol. I do dose with fertilizer I may have to add more root tabs to get the plants bigger. Uggh algae. I do have some panda Farrah’s in the tank they don’t seem to touch the BBA though. Thoughts. ❤😂 appreciate the video.
Looking at other comments, SAEs have worked for others. If you get 3 or 4 small ones you will okay for a while because they are slow growers. That should clean it up, but keep trimming and fortifying the plants with things like root tabs that can be added close to the plants you are trying to strengthen.
Ben, im sad to report that my 2 albino Hecklii's are in a hospital tank and look like they are dying..... I fed frozen bloodworms as a treat on Sunday night, something I do maybe once a month, and I think they possibly ate too many. The one was able to poop and looks better but the other still has it in him and is very lethargic and looks almost dead....I moved them into a 20 gallon hospital tank, gave an epsom salt bath, and Im wondering if you have any suggestions on meds to give them? Thanks.
I'll share a RU-vid secret with you: You can upload a video and select when you want it to be available to the public. So don't feel too bad for me. I sleapt until 8am today LOL!
Ive been battling black algae in my 32 gallon planted tank. For months. 🌱. The stuff is like cement. Hard to get off of everything. I cut down on my lighting. And bought some drops. It helped. But its not all gone. 🥲👋
![BLACK BEARD ALGAE [the *REAL* Reason it's GONE!]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
