What exactly is fluctuating CO2 in relation to BBA

[KnownStranger]

This is the key! and keep your stock levels in check. I find that most people don't clean their filters often, in my high-tech I need to clean the filter at least once a month, or I get BBA, and "hoover" the substrate with a gravel cleaner! on my long established low techs, I clean the filter once every 3 months or so.

i agree ,the most obvious reason for bba is not clean our filter on a regular interval (atleast once a month), also your local water report can help,if its has more silicate then thats should be a reason, do use reactor or inline diffuser to resolve the issue of fluctuating co2, and do deep gravel vaconce a week ,if its heavily planted then uproot plants and vac local areas periodically will help to came out from the situation. Also your tank pictures and parametres will help to determine the issue more deeply.thanks

 

[Qwedfg]

I was struggling with bba on my slow growing plants and hardscape and couldn’t get rid of it no matter how much co2 I pumped. I ended up rescaping and in the process cleaned my substrate out by dumping water onto the substrate and sucking out the muck a bunch of times. Since the rescape I haven’t had any issues with bba or green spot algae. My tank was set up for a year and a half and I didn’t do enough to throughly clean the substrate I guess even though I thought my tank was pretty clean due to big 60% water changes every week….lesson learned.

In my experience I would say there is a big link between a dirty tank and bba and green spot algae.

 

[Andy Pierce]

I'm getting some BBA colonising some of my older vallis now and looking closely at it, to the 'high flow' BBA theory I'm wondering whether what happens is the BBA is 'fuzzy' and does a good job of trapping fine-mist CO2 bubbles from the flow, which gives the BBA an additional turbo-boost. So it might not be the flow 'per se' just an indirect consequence of the flow delivering fine-mist CO2 bubbles?

 

[Oldguy]

BBA is 'fuzzy' and does a good job of trapping fine-mist CO2 bubbles from the flow, which gives the BBA an additional turbo-boost. So it might not be the flow 'per se' just an indirect consequence of the flow delivering fine-mist CO2 bubbles?

Difficult to say, some report that BBA doesn't grow in high flow areas and that BBA can grow by converting the hydrogen carbonate to the carbonate.
Perhaps the growth on your older valis leaves has stalled and the BBA as moved to colonize a dying surface.
I thing BBA is closely related to organic build up and the valis is in the early stages of providing such a situation.

 

[Mat H]

Having just fought it, and now being on the winning side, here's my two pennies worth:

Flow (Key): BBA doesn't care about flow but if the conditions are right for BBA high flow will spread it, however the answer is not to reduce flow, in fact correcting the flow around the tank is part of the answer [see CO2 and Nutrients].

I tried with and without flow but eventually found that correcting what I thought was already good flow was much more important.

Light: Can potentially exhaserbate the problem if conditions are right for BBA, however if you adjust to the detriment of your plants it doesn't help.

Organic matter (Key): Regular large water changes [unless your tank is low tech, in which case the reverse may be true and gassing off water before refilling may also help] clearing detritus, ensuring filters are clean, be careful with stocking, for a limited time using a fine filter media may help stop the spread though I don't like using it permanently.

Wood can be an issue depending what it is, thick bogwood for example can be a problem especially if you have pleco's or similar rasping the wood and if there are decaying sections. The longer you can soak the wood beforehand (and I mean months+ for large pieces) the better and ideally give it a good going over with a wire brush or the like to remove softer sections - the problem are decaying areas you can't see.

While fighting it I removed the bogwood weekly to soak (strong Ammonia smell when removing) and wire brush it down, also giving me access to clean properly underneath it. Whilst I couldn't increase the number of water changes whilst fighting it they were very much larger weekly water changes in the order of 60-70%.

Manual removal: If you see it remove it, clip leaves off as necessary, if it's on removable hardscape take it out and either treat it or wire bush it off.

CO2 (Key): High or low BBA will do fine, keeping it stable and well distributed to the benefit of your plants is key - healthy plants and less cell death on edges of leaves means less BBA on leaves.

It's key to ensure that good flow distributes the CO2 well around the tank, high and especially low.

I feel that both CO2 bubbles accumulating on plant leaves and pearling itself may be protective in some manner against BBA - though it could just be that they benefit, or are indicative of, good plant health.

Nutrients: BBA will do fine regardless of levels, however the same cannot be said for the plants. Grow plants not algae so dose your tank as appropriate considering your light and CO2.

I tried reducing dosing and this did not help in fact increasing my dosing, including iron, to EI+ levels has actually meant healthier plants that do not attract BBA [this was an appropriate level for me given high lights and stable CO2].

Liquid Carbon: Treating things outside of tank fine, spot treating is just a sticking plaster at best if the other issues aren't resolved first. May work if overdosed [on this occasion I didn't] but personally I find that will be to the detriment of some livestock and some plants and again is a sticky plaster if other issues are not resolved [not particularly of a fan of this chemical in a tank or near me].

For me personally it didn't help and the BBA would come back with avengeance within days so I stopped using it.

With respect to the health of stock my preference would be APT Fix if I were to use any gluteraldehyde.

Potential confounding factors (can't say if they've been helping but during my fight with BBA, including being on the other side, I have been dosing):

Seachem Amguard - morning and night
Easy-life Algexit (salicylic acid) - once weekly after water change;
Seachem Flourish Advance Phytohormone - every morning;
Two handfuls of Ramshorn Snails - one dose (could quite easily be listed by itself as pretty certain they do have a meaningful impact).

Other: Whilst difficult to really measure or comment on I do believe that Redox and microbial assemblage, particularly the balance of heterotrophic bacteria, may play some part in successes or failures when it comes to BBA (and other types of algea).

I know it's been debated before but I'm pretty convinced ammonia plays a part in this and is why the reduction of organic matter in various ways helps, even if it's not measurable with a test kit.

I initially felt like giving up when it started appearing on new plants after many were binned either due to BBA itself or damage from liquid carbon treatment, but I decided to stick with it and all the methods mentioned here and I'm now on the winning side with very little BBA and healthy plants.

[I got a little carried away and somewhat off subject, sorry] 😂

STABLE CO2: To me that means both distribution around the tank and ppm during the light cycle.

However I also feel the night time C02 levels should also be considered e.g. whilst the CO2 is off at night I wouldn't want to wake up to dark blue drop checkers before the C02 comes on.

Anecdotally my tanks and plants seem to do better where it is stable throughout, it's just that injection isn't required at night as it will increase naturally given it will be emitted by the plants - with the obvious caution of it not exceeding a level that could risk livestock - again back to balance.