Beating Black Beard Algae

[k777]

I'm a planted aquarium novice and would like to hear from you all about how you manage Black Beard Algae. I have some of it growing on the edges of some of my plants, on my rock work and on the filter intake. I'm wondering what causes it and how to tackle it. I have read that it likes to grow in high flow areas and I do have flow from the filter and a wave maker. Since I have Rainbow Fish that love to swim against that flow so I want to keep that. A bit about my aquariums: they are all 75 gallons, with Tidal 110 filters, 2 four foot planted tank LED's on each tank that are on for 8 hours at 80% intensity, ADA Amazonia Vs. II soil, heated to 78 degrees, GH is 8, KH is 7, pH is 8, ammonia, nitrites are zero, nitrates are around 40 (all using API test kit). I am using macro and micro fertilizers from Green Leaf Aquatics with very low doses every other day, I am experimenting with root tabs on a couple of Sword plants to see if it makes a difference in growth. I use a mix of RO and tap water to get the GH and KH I have. I do water changes every other week and I clean the filter floss at least weekly. I'm pretty good about trimming any spent leaves. My substrate is completely covered with plants. I know that there is fish waste below the plants on the surface of the substrate but I'm leaving it so that it can serve as fertilizer. My water is crystal clear and my plants seem to be growing fine. I do not use co2. I have mainly crypts, swords, anubias, buce, vals and salvinia minima on the water surface. I do have several large pieces of wood in each aquarium, no tannins. The rock work is black slate terrace walls that I built and a small area of black diamond blasting sand. These aquariums were set up in June of 2023. I'm really pleased with how the aquariums look but I'm stumped on how to battle the BBA . I would be so thankful for any help from the collective wisdom here.

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

Are you injecting CO2? Pictures would help as well.

 

[k777]

I am not using co2.

 

[Count Krunk]

No co2, but yes please post some pictures.

How often you doing wc?

 

[k777]

I do water changes of 25 to 30 percent when my nitrate reading goes beyond 40 using the api test. That is usually every other week. I know that the current thinking about nitrates is that they are not usually harmful at levels below 100 but I do use this test as a gauge of what is happening in my aquariums. My lights are not no right now but I will attach some photos showing examples of the BBA . It is very classic and ordinary BBA however. It grows on the very edges of some plants and rocks - looks just like examples I have found online.

 

[GreggZ]

I'm a planted aquarium novice and would like to hear from you all about how you manage Black Beard Algae. I have some of it growing on the edges of some of my plants, on my rock work and on the filter intake. I'm wondering what causes it and how to tackle it. I have read that it likes to grow in high flow areas and I do have flow from the filter and a wave maker. Since I have Rainbow Fish that love to swim against that flow so I want to keep that. A bit about my aquariums: they are all 75 gallons, with Tidal 110 filters, 2 four foot planted tank LED's on each tank that are on for 8 hours at 80% intensity, ADA Amazonia Vs. II soil, heated to 78 degrees, GH is 8, KH is 7, pH is 8, ammonia, nitrites are zero, nitrates are around 40 (all using API test kit). I am using macro and micro fertilizers from Green Leaf Aquatics with very low doses every other day, I am experimenting with root tabs on a couple of Sword plants to see if it makes a difference in growth. I use a mix of RO and tap water to get the GH and KH I have. I do water changes every other week and I clean the filter floss at least weekly. I'm pretty good about trimming any spent leaves. My substrate is completely covered with plants. I know that there is fish waste below the plants on the surface of the substrate but I'm leaving it so that it can serve as fertilizer. My water is crystal clear and my plants seem to be growing fine. I do not use co2. I have mainly crypts, swords, anubias, buce, vals and salvinia minima on the water surface. I do have several large pieces of wood in each aquarium, no tannins. The rock work is black slate terrace walls that I built and a small area of black diamond blasting sand. These aquariums were set up in June of 2023. I'm really pleased with how the aquariums look but I'm stumped on how to battle the BBA. I would be so thankful for any help from the collective wisdom here.

A few things come to mind. Number one is flow. Many times BBA appears in the area of the greatest flow. If your Bows are swimming into the flow, then it's likely too high. Whether they like it or not who knows. I don't have enough flow for mine to swim into and they seem pretty happy to me.

Too much light can be an issue. Hard to say with the information you supplied. In general with many of the higher powered lights available today 80% may be too much without CO2. But again have no idea what kind of PAR your lights are pushing.

Fish waste as fertilizer is a poor fertilization plan. BBA also loves high dissolved organics in the system. A dirty substrate is a good way to invite BBA .

As to fertilization again can't tell with what you provide. But in general starving unhealthy plants are also a magnet for BBA . You mention you are dosing low amounts and NO3 is the forties. I dose loads of ferts with a full tank of Rainbows and never get to that level. More large water changes likely would help.

And like others have said, a picture is worth a thousand words. Seeing what is going on can help people help you.

 

[k777]

Here are a couple of photos of the BBA in my aquariums. It is mainly growing on the edges of Anubias, Java Fern and some of the rock work. Thank you in advance for any suggestions. It is not a major issue or wide spread however, I want to learn how to at least discourage it. I'm thinking that light is not an issue since I don't have any other kinds of algae anywhere in any of the aquariums. From what I'm hearing so far, it sounds like I need to vacuum the substrate under the plants and dose more liquid fertilizers to strengthen the plants. Does that sound like a good first step? Thanks again for suggestions.

 

[Ed Wiser]

What I did to keep this type of algae from happening is to rub the leafs while doing a water change. This type of leaf is wide and flat and is a perfect spot for film to develop on the leafs. By using your hand and lightly clean the film off the leaf it keeps this algae from developing.

 

[*Ci*]

I had a lot of algae, including bba due to some mistakes I made in the first 6 months of one of my tanks. I corrected the mistakes which resolved everything but the bba on anubias, java fern and wood. I took the affected pieces out and sprayed with 3% hydrogen peroxide, waited 5 min, then sprayed with Excel, 5 more min. the put back into the tank.
The bba all died off, with minimal wear and tear on the leaves, and never came back.

 

[Pepere]

I usually snip off the odd leaf that has algae growing on the margins. My thought and my experience is they usually dont recover so pulling it out removes a bunch of Algae from the tank that could spread elsewhere.

Fortunately my plants are currently free from visible Algae.

I do have some black beard Algae that grows on some of my rocks from time to time. During a water change I will take out those rocks and spray them down with peroxide, let them set 5 minutes and scrub them with a stiff brush and respray them…. After a few rounds of that I rinse them off and return them to the tank…

 

[hypnogogia]

Fish waste as fertilizer is a poor fertilization plan. BBA also loves high dissolved organics in the system. A dirty substrate is a good way to invite BBA.

This one.

 

[Pepere]

I ran across this video last night about black beard algae that I thought was pretty good.

 

[Yugang]

I ran across this video last night about black beard algae that I thought was pretty good.

I hope we will see more videos like this, and I hope we will see more from the hobbyist who made it as he seems quite knowledgeable. Thank you for posting this @Pepere

I always thought that BBA was caused by CO2 problems, but over the years it seems we are getting closer to the truth on this one and the video captures that nicely.

I did terrible things to my tank with CO2, had plants suffering or dying, but never a BBA outbreak. I believe keeping my tank as low as possible on waste organics (maintenance) saved me from BBA . My best understanding is that CO2 may be the root cause in high tech tanks, but it is really the plants suffering, and their waste, that triggers the BBA .

 

[Pepere]

I havent had any growing on my plants since I started weekly 50% water changes and cleaning out the canister filter every month.

I do get it growing on my rocks. When I see it, I pull them out and spray with peroxide and scrub….

I can deal with that level of maintenance, but I do wonder why it grows on my rocks despite keeping the tank clean….

 

[Yugang]

I can deal with that level of maintenance, but I do wonder why it grows on my rocks despite keeping the tank clean…

From experience with my tank, and what I read about other tanks, it seems that there is nearly always a little BBA around, even with very experienced scapers.

Currently I have no BBA at all, and for me that is a bigger surprise and mystery than why most of the time I still have a little BBA here and there on hardscape, especially in high flow. I think there is nothing wrong with a some BBA , we just don't want to see an outbreak.

 

[SingAlongWithTsing]

I do get it growing on my rocks. When I see it, I pull them out and spray with peroxide and scrub….

I can deal with that level of maintenance, but I do wonder why it grows on my rocks despite keeping the tank clean….

Probably cuz it's easier for the BBA to cling to. At least that's what I tell myself lol

 

[k777]

I'm a planted aquarium novice and would like to hear from you all about how you manage Black Beard Algae. I have some of it growing on the edges of some of my plants, on my rock work and on the filter intake. I'm wondering what causes it and how to tackle it. I have read that it likes to grow in high flow areas and I do have flow from the filter and a wave maker. Since I have Rainbow Fish that love to swim against that flow so I want to keep that. A bit about my aquariums: they are all 75 gallons, with Tidal 110 filters, 2 four foot planted tank LED's on each tank that are on for 8 hours at 80% intensity, ADA Amazonia Vs. II soil, heated to 78 degrees, GH is 8, KH is 7, pH is 8, ammonia, nitrites are zero, nitrates are around 40 (all using API test kit). I am using macro and micro fertilizers from Green Leaf Aquatics with very low doses every other day, I am experimenting with root tabs on a couple of Sword plants to see if it makes a difference in growth. I use a mix of RO and tap water to get the GH and KH I have. I do water changes every other week and I clean the filter floss at least weekly. I'm pretty good about trimming any spent leaves. My substrate is completely covered with plants. I know that there is fish waste below the plants on the surface of the substrate but I'm leaving it so that it can serve as fertilizer. My water is crystal clear and my plants seem to be growing fine. I do not use co2. I have mainly crypts, swords, anubias, buce, vals and salvinia minima on the water surface. I do have several large pieces of wood in each aquarium, no tannins. The rock work is black slate terrace walls that I built and a small area of black diamond blasting sand. These aquariums were set up in June of 2023. I'm really pleased with how the aquariums look but I'm stumped on how to battle the BBA. I would be so thankful for any help from the collective wisdom here.

I would like to do a follow up to my post on fighting BBA now that a month has passed. The short answer is that the vast majority of it is gone. I turned off the wave maker to turn down the current some. I took several anubias out of the tank and treated them with peroxide and then returned them to the aquarium. I am also cleaning the filter more often now and I am spot vacuuming areas where waste seems to collect. So I would say that I am keeping the aquarium cleaner in general. I don't think it was dirty before or at least it did not look dirty and I do not want to run the risk of harming my beneficial bacteria. But keeping these areas clean was part of what I heard from all of you. There is no longer any BBA on my plants or on my filter. There is a small amount on some black rocks right on the edge. I could pull those out and treat them. I do want to thank all of you who were so willing to reach out and help me. You were a great help to me and I learned a lot from listening to you all. Thank you.

 

[Wmccaskill]

I’m not sure if it works for everyone but in my low tech scapes I have always added a SAE whenever I see BBA starting. They take care of it quick!