and some plants here are more sensitive, Bolbitis heteroclita "difformis" is very greatful for BBA to attach.
Yup the
<epiphytes> growing submersed are all rather slow growers and susceptible to algae attack. I've also experience the B. heteroclita the most difficult fern in it's genus. Tried it a few times in high tech setups and everytime it got eaten away by bba.
🙂 In this case i suffered Staghorn (BBA)
In nature these plants rarely grow submersed, mainly they grow near wet places in the splash zone, attached to rock or wood. In botanical terms they are the i.a. facultative lithophytes. Meaning growing on rock and beyond, on wood or sometimes even on forest soil. But main characteristic of these types of plants, they have evolved to grow in poorly fertilized conditions,, mainly feeding on what the bacteria living at their roots provide, have a very slow uptake and mainly only survive in shaded and cooler spots. The ones that survive sunny spots grow in the splash zone on rock etc sticking out of the water.
It can be very challanging to grow these plants out of their comfort zone, permanently submersed, healthy and algae free. The placement of these plants in the scape should be well thought out, especialy if kept together with plants requiring a higher light intensity and higher fert regime. Than if the balance is off and bba starts to party, these slow growers are the first to suffer. The ones that are placed in a location that doesn't respect it's natural requirments even sooner.
Thus that rather mysterious balance to keep algae out is not only in the parameters, it also is in knowing your plants and its best spot in the given conditions.
When it comes to BBA or algae growth in general, i can understand that you are dead set on it, that adding your waste water parameters must be the root cause. You are not alone in this, there are numerous threads and numerous different experiences with changing one specific parameter causing a BBA outbreak. E.g. many experienced BBA outbreak after dosing extra Fe to the tank, than open a thread and report dead set that the extra iron is the root cause. Than if you read on than you only can come to the conclusion that this isn't true for everybody. Many use Estimative Index as fert regime, that goes by the principle add more ferts than you need to prevent ever running into a shortage and reset the water column with a weekly water change. And they do not suffer from BBA, than if you compare both situations in PPM the one with using IE as fert regime has a permanently higher iron content than the one claiming dead set extra iron is the cause.
There are reports of people switching liquid fert regime from Tropcia Premium to Tropica Specialized and suffer a bba outbreak (matter a fact i did too) and than report dead set the extra Nitrogen in the Specialized version causing it (that i didn't). Tropica even gives a warning for it on the botlles description. The question remains, what is different or better for the people using it and not suffering from bba?.
It goes on and on, than it's this than it's that about everything that can change has been named as root cause.
And that is how we ended up with a 2 part sticky "What causes BBA" and still without a conclusive answer.
🙂
I also doubt that adding your waste water is the root cause.. Same as
@dw1305 says, your waste water has better parameters as the average UK tap water. Same goes for me, if i compare your WC report with mine, your RO waste water contains less of everything than my tap water.
At the moment i keep 4 aqauriums, 2 are growing BBA the other 2 absolutely don't. The 2 that never grew it both are cold water aquariums. I did throw BBA infested plants in these tanks and it dies. The 2 that grow bba are heated tropical aqauriums. From this experience i could be dead set on stating temperature is the root cause. I believe it most likely isn't, but it definitively plays a role in its cycle.
That makes it complicated and rather frustrating steering you dead set on 1 cause, that isn't the root cause alone.. In 90% of the cases it's a combination of factors that need to change and 99% of us have BBA spores in our aqauriums.
You might want to read this journal from
@Tim Harrison and his latest BBA battle he unfortunately lost. The plot thickens
is it a bad batch of DW that's the root cause? Unballanced bioload triggered by the wood? And if you want to see well kept aqauscapes, than Tim's journals are the ones to read.
🙂
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/naturescape-venus-flytrap-flowering.52807/page-10#post-543234
say more than 1000 words
