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BBA.....help

Chill2

Seedling
Joined
2 Dec 2018
Messages
13
Location
Sheffield
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Hi all

1st time post so please be gentle ☺️

So... I’ve had my tank for a couple years and been trying plants for around 6-8 months. Really struggling with BBA and holes in my amazon sword. I’m trying low tech with regular (weekly) water changes of 50%. Don’t dose anything in there. Done the seachem excel concentrated to a specific area for a week with no luck.

Can anyone help a very novice hobbyist out?
 

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Hi all

1st time post so please be gentle

So... I’ve had my tank for a couple years and been trying plants for around 6-8 months. Really struggling with BBA and holes in my amazon sword. I’m trying low tech with regular (weekly) water changes of 50%. Don’t dose anything in there. Done the seachem excel concentrated to a specific area for a week with no luck.

Can anyone help a very novice hobbyist out?

Hi and welcome, I’m a newby to the site myself. How long is your lighting period?.. I had a really bad BBA outbreak a year or so ago. I stripped my tank, scrubbed decor and glass and removed any leaves (whole plants if they were too far gone) I also reduced my lighting period to 6 hours. Since then I have started injecting Co2 and very slowly increased my lighting up to 10hrs. Touch wood the BBA hasn’t come back ... do you have plenty of flow in your tank?


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Thanks for the reply.

Lights are on 8 hours a day. Looking at my pics Thayer were taken tonight I think I need to completely strip down and start again. Any idea of the holes in the amazon sword?
Don’t really want to go the co2 route as it’s a bit pricey?
 
Thanks for the reply.

Lights are on 8 hours a day. Looking at my pics Thayer were taken tonight I think I need to completely strip down and start again. Any idea of the holes in the amazon sword?
Don’t really want to go the co2 route as it’s a bit pricey?

The holes in swords are more than likely a Co2/nutrient deficiency. I was apprehensive about Co2 due to cost too but, I have gone down the route of using a 2kg fire extinguisher. My regulator with built in solenoid and bubble counter cost in the region of 35/40 pounds from eBay, the fire extinguisher was £23 brand new, again from eBay (I bought 2 so I’m never without) and diffuser, check valve and Co2 tubing were another £20 maximum. In my opinion it’s well worth the outlay... oh and a good liquid fertiliser....


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Is it safe to use a fire extinguisher?

Lol yes... you could ask is it safe to use compressed Co2 at all... as long as you follow the instructions/guides on this and many other forums it’s just a cost effective way of adding Co2 to our aquariums. The aquarium specific regulators for sale on eBay/amazon screw directly on to the extinguisher. There will be plenty of info on here.


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Ha ha thanks for this. Will see what Santa brings me that 2kg bottle lasts a while? Will be looking into other threads on this definitely as it’s only a 200 litre so hoping for a few month of usage
 
Ha ha thanks for this. Will see what Santa brings me that 2kg bottle lasts a while? Will be looking into other threads on this definitely as it’s only a 200 litre so hoping for a few month of usage

Some say up to 6 months but not sure on how heavily planted their tanks are. I’m still on my first extinguisher and it’s been running about 6/7 weeks now. You will also need a drop checker to monitor the amount of Co2 in your aquarium, again about £10-£15...


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Ha ha thanks for this. Will see what Santa brings me that 2kg bottle lasts a while? Will be looking into other threads on this definitely as it’s only a 200 litre so hoping for a few month of usage

Mines only a 100l but will be upgrading to a 250 in the new year.


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I would start feeding the plants with macro and micro ferlilizers, hard to grow without feeding. You can use dry salts or use one of the all in one solutions
I would start with this before starting with CO2.
 
I’ll give it a go, do the veg wafer things but I’ll go with some veg. Slightly boiled or just raw?
 
Ferropol isn't a complete fertiliser, no N or P... if you have decent fish stocking though this should be ok. Something like the aquascaper complete liquid plant food contains everything you need, but I dose it half and half with Ferropol to avoid increasing nitrate too much as my tanks are fairly well stocked.
 
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