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RE:Breard/BBA algae

>The beard algae, however, has remained.  Although it only appears on my
>slow-growing plants, I would like to eliminate this last nuisance.  Certain
>pieces of driftwood are covered with a somewhat thick mat of the stuff.  And
>my Anubias gets the algae on the stems and on the older leaves.  Other than
>that, I see a small amount of beard algae on very old Crypt leaves, but not
>much here ... and I can usually prune these older leaves away.  With the
>Anubias, the growth is too slow to eliminate the algae with pruning.
>The bleaching plan I have is as follows: use a somewhat strong batch on all
>the driftwood (perhaps 1 beach to 4 water, and some elbow grease), and use a
>mild batch (1:19) for 60 seconds on my Anubias only.

Just leave the wood in the bleach longer. You won't need a stronger
solution.
I added just the infected areas in the dip until the algae started to turn
colors/white then yanked it out, rinsed, then added to an Amquel dip. 1-4
minutes dip time depending on amount of Algae for plants but you can go
longer with the wood.

>Does anybody know a better way to eliminate this pest?

SAE's are one way. Check archives for more on them. 
The other is to keep your fish loads lower and the Ph down. Even after the
conditions are corrected this algae needs to be dealt with. Bleach,SAE's,
trimming, removing the plant and growing for a month or so in emersed
terrariums, general manual hand harassment-rubbing, cutting, trimming parts
of leaves etc. It's work and can be a lot of it if you have a good
infestation. You may even consider buying new plants or giving them away to
someone who is willing to do all the work. Your time may be worth more than
some folks so this may be a good deal. I have received many plants in this
manner or folks who thought they couldn't revive the plants again. All my
Bolbitis comes from a small nub of BBA that had a small piece of plant in
there that I got some 10 years ago. It grew out and I eventually removed the
BBA part. Certain plants are known to get algae worse than others. Perhaps
consider staying away from these plants such as Anubias. SAE's will be a
good method but they need starved a little to eat it and you should be
patient and give them some time. They will take care of it.

>Tom

Regards, 
Tom Barr