Black Brush Algae - revisited

[dpatte]

After 40 years in the hobby, I feel fairly knowledgeable about handling most of the normal issues that can turn up in a freshwater tank, but one that keeps stumping me is Black Brush Algae.

For me, when it arrives, it tends to grow on Anubias plants, along the edges of the leaves. It also sometimes tends to get established on driftwood.

I have found in the past that real Siamese Algae Eaters often will eat it back, and can cure a tank of this scourge (though not always), but i am wondering what other new information people may have about this ugly pest algae.

- What encourages it to grow?
- What are easy ways to remove it?

By the way - I never saw BBA until I moved to Ottawa. Ottawa also has some of the softest tapwater in the world. I'm wondering if there is a correlation here, and whether anyone has noticed whether BBA will also survive in harder water?

[Stussi613]

I got it in my 135g when it was planted. Started on annubias as you described, then took over my driftwood. I tried everything, less light, less feeding, more filtration, more flow...the only thing I didn't try was co2.  In the end the only way I could get it under control was getting 5 baby SAE's and spot treating the bba with flourish excel in a syringe.  Once it turned grey the SAE's devoured it, but they wouldn't touch it otherwise.  Over the course of 2 months I got rid of it from all my driftwood and plants using this method of treating the recommended dose for the tank every other day directly on the BBA.

[dpatte]

My tank is low-medium light with slow growing plants (Anubias, crypts - my swords barely grow). Its cycled and the water chemistry all seems fine. Occasionally I add Kent plant food, and I'm wondering if perhaps there is too much iron in the tank.

And I wonder what is is in Flourish Excel that kills it.

[Stussi613]

My tank is low-medium light with slow growing plants (Anubias, crypts - my swords barely grow). Its cycled and the water chemistry all seems fine. Occasionally I add Kent plant food, and I'm wondering if perhaps there is too much iron in the tank.

And I wonder what is is in Flourish Excel that kills it.

It has allot of carbon in it, one school of thought is that it overloads it with nutrients and kills it. I'm more inclined to believe that it's really potent in concentrated doses and spot treating with filters off leaves it in contact with the bba long enough to nuke it.  It doesn't affect the rest of the tank and fish because it dissipates through osmosis and since you only use enough to treat the entire tank it's not harmful to anything else.

[sas]

With regards to your comment,
"By the way - I never saw BBA until I moved to Ottawa. Ottawa also has some of the softest tapwater in the world. I'm wondering if there is a correlation here, and whether anyone has noticed whether BBA will also survive in harder water?

It does grow in hard water and very well. We have water here that comes out of the tap in chunks and I had a nasty outbreak when I first started in the hobby.
Nothing seemed to work, tanks was too big to spot treat, and I ended up tearing the tank down and disinfecting everything in it with peroxide. Haven't had a problem since.

[Dan]

I got tired of spot treating the BBA with Florish's Excel so I decided to do a onetime 2 minutes dip of my Anubias in a 100% concentration of the stuff for. Big mistake...3 days later all my Anubias started to turn yellow...2 weeks later they started to rot. Lost them all...but it sure got rid of that BBA 

[lepageg]

is it in our water source or does it come from our LFS on live plants and such?

[dpatte]

i think Ottawa's water is about as pristine as one can get, so i doubt its from there.

[exv152]

In my experience with BBA, and I have some in my non-co2 tanks, with lower lighting, is due to an inconsistent supply of co2. Which probably explains why BBA dies when spot treating with excel, but seems to come back again because the solution doesn't address the root cause.

[Jeff1192]

It was my nemesis was I was running my high tech planted 90 gallon. I tried EVERYTHING and the best I could get was that I only had a small amount. I could never totally get rid of it.


I HATE that stuff...haha.

Jeff

[fischkopp]

I believe the keep to cope with BBA is balance, the ratio of light, macro/micro nutrients and CO2 adjusted to fit the needs of the particular plants in a tank. The most critical ones here I find is CO2 and the actual types of plants kept together. I find it should be a healthy mix of plants that grow a little faster, and ones that won't. One should keep an eye on the faster growing plants and trim them back in time before they invade the space of other plants. It does require a bit of experimenting to find a good combination of plants, so patience is your friend, continuous observation and maintenance is mandatory.

In such a setup BBA will still exist, among a variety of a few types of green algae, and that is normal. The key is that it won't be a pest anymore, and is easily maintainable by removal, or spot treatment with your choice of liquid. Also it tends to mainly grow on dead organic matter or decorations/equipment, which can be often removed and easily rinsed under hot water. Or you can just choose to ignore those few spots and enjoy the tank as a hole.

I have seen at a few occasions that drastic changes in the way macro nutrients are provided can cause a massive BBA die off. I could never really pinpoint what the dominant factor was, but it could be just a shift of the conditions towards an even more balanced tank, basically letting the plants flourish and starve out the algae. The problem really is that this cannot be easily maintained for a longer period of time, so the effect tends to be short lived. On the other hand, if you are wondering why guys like Amano seem to have won the battle against BBA, well, look at their maintenance schedule: Amano's tanks get daily 50+% water changes. That's the only way to maintain balance in a little glass box in the long run as it's requirements are changing daily ...

Just my take. Hope it makes sense to you.
Happy aquascaping!

[Toss]

Half of my tank is filled with anubias. BBA comes and go over 10 yrs. I have CO2 system, only set at 2-3 bubbles/sec. Sometimes shut it down for extended period of time. For me CO2 doesn't effect BBA. My BBA only comes from too much nutrients/dosing and being lazy on water change.

[exv152]

Half of my tank is filled with anubias. BBA comes and go over 10 yrs. I have CO2 system, only set at 2-3 bubbles/sec. Sometimes shut it down for extended period of time. For me CO2 doesn't effect BBA. My BBA only comes from too much nutrients/dosing and being lazy on water change.

I'm not sure if your algae bloom would be caused by excessive nutrients if you're turning off your co2. In the balancing act of the three major nutrients (light, ferts and co2) if you limit anyone in particular, algae will bloom. Excessive ferts rarely cause alga blooms unless you're talking massive amounts of phosphates and nitrates, which shouldn't be an issue with weekly water changes. Look up Tom Barr and his experiments with nutrients and algae on the Barr report. Also, remember co2 diffusion (of the three major elements) is by far the most difficult to achieve and maintain, and the most potentially problematic. That said, if you don't add ferts or co2 to a tank and you want to get rid of BBA, I'd suggest reducing the lighting intensity first.