[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Possible BBA Annihlator?

    I've conducted 2 experiments with what I believed to be black brush
algae, grows at the ends of the of leaves causing the plant to sufficate
from lack of nutrients. 1-2mm black hairs sometimes reaching half an inch
once on a thermometer, very difficult to remove even by scrubbing or
scraping and only by cutting off leaves!

    My first test was about 6 months ago, I was inexperienced and didn't
read the label of Kent Freshwater and ended up dosing 30 gallon dosages once
a week. My Java moss started to get intangled with lots of BBA, so I decided
to save it by removing it and placing it in my toad tank.  At the time being
semi-new to plant growing, I had an incandescent fixture on top of the
setup.The Java Moss turned a dark green over a period of months and I
noticed there was no more black hairs, even though there was plenty of fish
in the water, of course the java moss was submerged in a part of the tank
where there was land and about .25" of water.

    I have heard that some people say they've removed BBA from the tank and
put it away in a corner for a few months in darkness, and then they
reintroduce it into the fish tank and it's virtually unharmed and starts
regrowing.

    Until recently I've discovered that BBA needs to be removed because once
it gets started it doesn't go away, it's basically a growing plant instead
of bacteria, though scientifically this could be inaccurate, but I have been
unable to remove it by dosing correctly.

    About a week ago I set up an emersed tank since I read that plants are
usually grown above water in nature.  Still not knowing that incandescent
lights cannot grow plants, I went ahead and placed a 25watt bulb on top of
the tank. The BBA literally vanished within 3-4 days while the plants, Some
kind of Sword, Anubius Nana, turned a little darker but did not seem to be
at all affected or dieing (my hygro started dieing after 5 days suddenly)
This includes the leaves of the above and under the water were I had a bit
of BBA growing, especially the BBA. So does incandescent lighting have some
kind of effect on algae and lets plants hold on for quite some time? I have
had brown algae with incandescent lighting but I had to many nutrients in
the water, and once cleaned up the nutrients, brown algae literally
disappeard within 2-3 days.

    My current test is to see if it's directly related to the incandescent
lighting by not having any light on my planted tank for 3-4 days (just so
hygro don't start fallin off) I have pretty much ruled out excess nutrients
because I overdosed my emersed tank quite a bit, and there's only 2" of
water, however there is no fish in the emersed set up, but there were infact
fish in my toad tank with the original Java Moss. I'm happy to announce my
Java Moss has started to regrow, it's doubled within the last 3 weeks. to
about a 5" in diameter clump. I kept having to cut my Micro Sword in half
because it started to grow along with the BBA, and now that I relized that
plants don't grow under indcandescent lighting, I placed a 15watt chroma  50
over my 5 gallon tank to see if my plants will start regrowing. If anyone
can offer any Scientific explenation please let me know or the results if
anyone does this kind of test. It took a 3-4 days for all the algae
including BBA to disappear.

- Matt