Black Beard Algae taking over my cichlid tank

[davemonkey]

Good luck Vicki! That's got to be a horrible feeling seeing it come up over and again in all your tanks. Somehow I have managed to avoid it the past couple years(BBA that is, I do get staghorn form time to time).

[Complexity]

It's not really a problem in my other tanks. It's very slight and it doesn't take over. It's just the cichlid tank that's really a problem. It's probably because that tank has a much higher fish load with no plants to help take up the slack. So when things are out of balance, it shows up much more aggressively in that tank.

I couldn't just dump H2o2 in the tank and call it a day. So I yanked all the fake plants and intakes out and bleached them. Then I did a double water change in the tank. The double is because I then use the water pressure to clean out the rocks of detritus which I then clean up again. It's refilled with the filters running, but without any fake plants. I'll leave it that way until it's time for lights out. Then I have to put the fake plants back in or the cichlids will have a hard time because they use the plants for hiding places.

From there, I'll keep up with the H2O2 and water changes. I may have to rethink my plumbing or thin out the number of fish I have. Something's got to give.

[eklikewhoa]

I use to use a tiny funnel or cut top portion of a 20oz along with a liquid med syringe(no needle) you can get from any pharmacy if you ask and cover the effected area with the funnel and inject through the other side and hold for a bit.

The solution would be more concentrated to the area for the time being.

Obviously wouldn't work too well if your whole tank is infested unless you have the patience.

[Complexity]

I really like the idea of a 20oz syringe. I'll look for one next time I'm in the pharmacy. That would simplify the job while still allowing me to direct the H2O2 onto the BBA to be most affective. Thanks for the idea!

[Complexity]

I think I'm beginning to get a handle on the algae problem. My glass is beginning to stay clean and the algae on the fake plants has stopped accumulating! I still have to get rid of the BBA on the rocks, but it looks like I've managed to turn things around so the algae is no longer growing (or at least not growing as fast as it was). I'm very happy!

Looking more closely, I realized that I'm not only fighting BBA, but also Oedogonium which is a short form of filamentous algae, sometimes referred to as "fur algae". Identifying this other algae was very helpful to resolving the problem. While BBA is a very persistent algae, Oedogonium is an extremely fast growing algae, coating everything in less than a week after a thorough bleaching.

What seemed to be the main problem were high phosphates due to overfeeding, high fish load, and lack of proper maintenance while I was in school. Then, whenever I'd clean the tank, I'd only clean out just one filter, leaving the other filter dirty to maintain the bacteria colony. I never did a thorough clean-out of the tank and both filters at the same time. This left enough crud behind to maintain the high phosphate levels. It wasn't until I cleaned all of it at the same time that I could finally get a handle on the phosphate levels. Plus, I've also added phosphate remover to both canisters.

The tank is looking much better now. I still have to kill out the rest of the BBA, but at least I don't have algae overtaking everything like it was before.

[barrettsline]

Well that's great! Glad to hear your beating it down. Good luck with killing it all.


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[eklikewhoa]

Whoa... I think keeping up with water changes and continuing with your routine of cleaning only one filter at a time would be sufficient as long as you adjust the other things like feeding, photoperiod, etc. Unless this second filter that is being alternated when cleaning gets shut off while doing water changes that is.

[aquabee]

Great news! This kind of algae is so *annoying*. The least it could do for us is be pretty to look at given how resistant it is, but it's not even cool-looking!! Ha! Glad to hear the score is changing. Vicki 1, BBA/Oe 0!

[Complexity]

Thanks, barrettsline and B!

ek, I won't be cleaning everything out at the same time all the time. Now that I've got a handle on things, I can go back to my regular plan of only cleaning 1 canister at a time. That's one reason why I favor dual filtration. However, what I have to do is not let the canisters get so bad in the first place. I'll prevent that by reducing how much I feed, reducing the fish load, and not waiting so late to clean the canisters. On my planted tanks, I can wait 3 months or more before cleaning my canisters. Clearly, I have to do it more frequently with this tank. The main thing was figuring out why the algae was growing so aggressively and stopping it which I've done.

I hear a lot of talk regarding algae about photoperiods, nitrates, nutrients, and all, but not much is said about phosphates. I think there should be more emphasis on phosphates when someone has a bad algae problem. I think it's the main key to the problem, especially in a non-planted tank.