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Excel to keep BBA at bay - what's the best way to dose?

Surya

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14 Aug 2018
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I posted previously about my redmoor root which keeps getting covered in BBA. Most of the rest of the tank stays clear, except a few tufts on the glass. I have tried to address the core issues by optimising pressurised CO2, flow, halved light intensity, stepped up cleaning a lot and manually removed all BBA. I have also been dosing Excel at standard dose purely for algaecide properties, which has cleared up the last bit.

When I tried Excel previously it worked great to stop BBA, but this wore off after a while. The algae seemed to adapt to it, though I might be wrong about this.

So, this time... How can I use Excel most effectively to keep the BBA away? Should I keep dosing daily, every other day, or just the once a week (perhaps the large 5ml/40l dose suggested by Seachem after a water change?) Or just put it away until BBA comes back, then restart?
 
Dosing Excel is used to help boost plant nutrition and its side effect is its algaecide properties, so using it to fight algae can be a losing battle, aim for healthy growing plants with optimal nutrition and flow not too much light and BBA shouldn't be an issue ( although you may have a little here and there OFC).
For optimal nutritional benefits of Excel/LC it is best used daily just before lights on as it aims at boosting the carbon available to plants and Excel/LC is broken down by light so its half-life is about the photo period of your tank
 
Turn off your filter and spot dose the excel (use the normal dose, get as close to the bba as you can and then slowly squirt some over it). Repeat daily until you've successfully covered all the bba at least a couple of times. Follow normal dosing amounts per day (don't over dose, so it might take a few days to go round all the bba at least once but then aim for a couple more times around it all). Leave the filter off for 10-15 mins after each spot dosing to give the excel optimum contact time. You should see the bba turn red after a couple or more days post spot dosing, at which point it is dead. If you have shrimp they should then eat it. If you don't have shrimp I'd recommend getting some amano's for that reason and to help with preventation of algae as a whole
 
Thanks both. Just to clarify, the BBA is now gone so there is nothing to spot dose - I am keen to keep it from coming back. The Excel always seems to be the thing that gives it the final push to go away, but I don't know if I need to keep dosing it to get the benefit.
 
but I don't know if I need to keep dosing it to get the benefit.
Like Zeus mentions, if everything else is in balance, you probably won't need it at all. Try without and see how you go. If it returns maybe think about tweaking your light:fertz:CO2 flow and distribution ratio, and upping your maintenance.
 
I have found that I tend to get BBA when the tank / filter are a bit dirty. I tried Excel and even an SAE but I got control of it by deep cleaning the tank, pipework and filter media and installing a pre filter.

I still see the odd spot (particularly on spray bar) which lets me know it's time to give everything a good clean.
 
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