BBA attack

[GlassWalker]

This tank has been running in various forms for a while, and I'm running it low light/no significant ferts/no additional carbon. I've neglected it in recent months and let it overgrow, especially vallis which is growing everywhere. That's when I had a BBA attack. All plants still look good apart from those parts with BBA on them. The worst affected was vallis, which was getting on for 4ft long. The tank is at most 2ft tall, so it covered the surface also. The BBA grows mainly on the vallis closest to the top of the tank, but also some on the top bits of bogwood and filter outlets. There is no BBA in the lower parts of the tank.

Tank is 4ft Fluval Vicenza 260L, primarily lit by an 18W Interpet LED array for 10h/day so to me I'd consider it very low lighting compared to anything else I've tried in the past. Small 3W LED bar to help fill in the opposite edge of tank since the main one doesn't cover the width.

No particular fert schedule. Sometimes I throw in a random amount of what's left of my EI kit I don't use any more. No carbon source. Fish stocking moderate to heavy. Perhaps 100 generously fed small fish (ember tetras, neon tetra, neon green rasbora, lampeye killifish, and others like that) and also a ton of MTS. I used to have crystal red shrimp in here too but they failed to breed in this tank (too many fish?) and slowly disappeared.

Water was remineralised RO with a target KH of 1 degree, GH around 6 degrees, TDS <150. This was mainly for the benefit of the shrimp, although I don't need to continue this any more. I know the salts used contain a fair amount of potassium and magnesium so they shouldn't be running short. I typically do 25% water change every 2 weeks.

My action so far to the outbreak was to remove most of the vallis. I don't like the way it grows and spreads so fast, but kept a little in a corner. The remaining plants are mostly slower growing types like crypts, java fern, java moss, and are clean.

Question is what should I do now? I have liquid carbon (EasyCarbo) I could start dosing, along with EI ferts. But I'm not sure it was a fert shortage since the leaves still all look healthy. Carbon shortage, maybe. Too many plants for too little carbon? If so, removing the excess vallis alone might be enough to swing the balance back in my favour again.

 

[JohnC]

lots to cover in this.... i'll chip in with an initial warning to be careful with easy carbo and vallis. this is one of the plants that doesnt react well to liquid carbon.

it may have been a combination of maxing out the fert supply when you were neglecting it, lack of overall cleaning, slowing water flow in the area of vallis on the surface with the bba appearing most on the plants nearest the light.....

you have done the right thing, remove the vallis leaves that were effected, hoover it or scrub it off the rocks and wood then go back to the way you ran it before if you were liking that regime.

 

[Chris Jackson]

It's a big read but you might want to check the What Exactly Causes BBA thread. As I recall there was a happy ending...

 

[GlassWalker]

I have used EasyCarbo in the past with the same Vallis I have now, and even with massive overdoses I never saw an adverse reaction between them. To be honest I wouldn't be sad to get rid of Vallis. As mentioned I am rather lazy at keeping it cut down to size. I think I forgot to say, but it was implicit, this was supposed to be easy to maintain. I did the high tech thing and plant growth was just too fast for me. Other than feeding the fish I didn't want to need to do anything else daily.

Oh, I would have to say, the BBA seems worst in areas of high flow, but that might be coincidental since the highest flow areas are also closest to the light.

I saw the long, long thread but will admit I haven't gone through it recently.

 

[GlassWalker]

I've been distracted by work travels recently but have finally removed the last of the worst of the BBA. While doing so, I found it curious not only the shape of the stuff when removed from water, but the smell. At least it doesn't seem airborne, in that the air above the aquarium doesn't smell other than normal aquarium smell.

Worse than that, I found the arm that was in tank the most now also has the same smell on it! Water only doesn't seem to rinse it off, and I don't want to use soaps as I've got other tanks to tend to. I can't easily describe the smell other than "I don't like it" but maybe like coriander seed but bad. Maybe I should use use soap and delay other tank maintenance for later... think I might dump a ton of activated carbon in that tank too, although the inhabitants don't seem bothered at all.

Edit: I washed my arms/hands twice, once with ordinary liquid soap, once with antiseptic disinfectant, and even after a good rinse after that I can still smell it. Argh!

 

[GlassWalker]

I've neglected the tank further and the BBA is fighting back. It is again covering the upper parts of vallis, but now it is also affecting upper parts of uncontrolled java moss, crypts and bogwood. I note it is only growing where two conditions are met: close to the light source and high water flow (direct path of filter outlet). I can't reduce the intensity of the light as it is a single non-dimmable LED module, although I could try reducing duration. I could also redirect the flow away from the plants.

I've been trying to dose liquid carbon, but rarely remember in mornings so that isn't helping.

I did have a thought. In another tank, I have a number of garra rufa, better known as the fish used for pedicure. The tank they're in is heavily stocked with mixed fish, and is now not planted since a blue lobster decided it liked eating java fern roots. I had rootless leaves everywhere after a time so what survived I moved to other tanks. The thing is, this tank is totally clear of algae. It is not only lit by aquarium lighting, it is also hit by attenuated sunlight for parts of the day. I say attenuated since the windows have solar reflecting film on which reflects 75% of the heat out. My thought was, could these fish be a contributing factor in the lack of algae in that tank? They do seem to like cleaning surfaces, although I don't know if BBA is part of their tastes. I thought I'd test it by moving some to the tank with BBA. Unfortunately I've not been able to progress this thinking. They're faster than a fast fish when the net hits the water, and even various baiting methods have proven unsuccessful. I don't think I'd be able to transfer any short of taking apart the tank, which I don't plan to do. Having said that, I just tried a more targeted search, and there are some references saying that they do eat BBA. Maybe I should make a bigger effort to move some of them over...

 

[alto]

Maybe I should make a bigger effort to move some of them over

Try a fish trap ... I made a version of this & it worked quite well (with patience & several attempts )
(I used a 2litre plastic orange juice container & held the pieces together with rubber bands, covering the opening with a large net when it was time to empty the trap)

I should mention that NO FISH fell for the food in the net trick, and the only fish "sleeping at night" in anything approaching plain sight, were the fish I can catch any time I want

 

[GlassWalker]

By chance I manage to ninja catch a bunch of fish using a net at a previous feeding time. Only two were garra rufa though, but they have been transferred into the BBA tank. They're getting more confident now and out in the open, occasionally chasing/getting chased by the single odessa barb in there. That barb was my earlier miracle baby that I decided against putting in with the other barbs at that stage. I hope they work out their differences quickly.

I've seen them explore all the hard surfaces, including those covered in algae, and I'm starting to see clean patches. Almost success! I just wish I could have got more in there. The other tank is now awake to the net attack so I don't think I can get away with another one.