black beard, plants not growing

[henward]

as you knwo my tank is high turn over, and putting liq ferts is useless.

i have clay balls

i have a massive black algae problem.

looks like ANubias, Java fern and half my amazons are infected.

BUT twisted val is untouched and throving!!

i dont mind the look of them, but love amazons.

some amazons are thriving, some are overwhelmed.

last ditch attempt to save the amazons as they are deteriorating, growth slowed and they are dying slowly i can see.

option 1 is to replace the heavily overwhelmed plants with alot of twisted val, love the twisteds - they look nice and carpet.

but, wondering, what fish can i put that will relentlessly eat black beard

someone told me siamese algae eaters eat them when small but when bigger they get lazy and eat pellets.

David suggested OTTOs, are they common?

How about bristlenoses?

anything that i can put in there that will consume it?

if not, then i dont believe i have a choice but to cull the plants that are heavily infected and put vals that wont get them on it, it seems to be immune to their effect, weird.

[Jennifer]

Reduce your light intensity/photo period and that will reduce the plants' demands for nutrients. Otherwise increase and stabilise the CO2 and add more ferts somehow. One or the other. To get rid of the BBA, you can do a black out, dose with flourish, or correct the nutrient/CO2 imbalance.

[Aquila]

Siamese algae eaters are the best at eating it. Once they get bigger, they WILL NOT get lazy...but WILL eat fish food because there wont be any black beard algae left!

[henward]

oh ok.

so you do recommend getting the SAE?

also known as black line flying fox? is tha right?

why do people tell me they get lazy?

so even with abundance of food in the tank, they shouldnt get lazy?

[alanmin4304]

Sae and flying fox are not the same fish. The black line goes right through the peduncle and tail on SAE but not through through the tail on the flying fox. They will eat more algae if you don't give them heaps of other food choices. Best to get SAE and get the chemical balance right.

[henward]

problem is that the tank requires lots of food. how many SAE should i get? and get them as small as possible?

or large ones?

So SAE will hvae a black line all the way tot he end of the tail?

HFF should know the difference right?

[Sophia]

i don't think oto eat brush or beard algae

they like soft green stuff and rasping on wood. or they did when I had them anyway

[hovmoller]

Sae and flying fox are not the same fish. The black line goes right through the peduncle and tail on SAE but not through through the tail on the flying fox. They will eat more algae if you don't give them heaps of other food choices. Best to get SAE and get the chemical balance right.

Yes for sure Flying Fox and SAE is not the same fish but SAE is sold as Black Line Flying Fox (perhaps because SAE are not on the MAF allowed to import list?)

IMO SAE's are very good at dealing with Black Beard.. but if your beard (not yours Henward) is already quite long they will not eat it.. you will have to manually nip it off so it is short and then the SAE's will do their damndest (probably not a real word) to keep it really low.. But they are also an oppotunistic fish so will feed on whatever they can when you do your feedings..

I believe if you wanted to do a once over rid of Black Beard you can overdose your tank with flourish excel.. I'm not too sure about this but I know at HFF they do it often and have the recipe there on what the dosage is.. (it will be very expensive though, especially for a tank your size)

[malevolentsparkle]

my royal whiptail eats some beard algae, but other fish may be better at it

[dbden]

Black lines will eat it fast make sure you get the ones where the line runs right to the end of the tail not the ones with the goldish tail. Young ones will eat it more than the older ones and would rather eat the new growth than the older bba.

Also florush works well but you will need to target it with a suringe with a tank your size will turn red and the black lines will eat it.

[hovmoller]

Also florush works well but you will need to target it with a suringe with a tank your size will turn red and the black lines will eat it.

Or take the plants out (are they still in pots?) and put them in a tiny tank and blitz them with Flourish Excel..

I have done similar in a bucket with a bleach solution and killed off the Black Beard but that was with Anubias that is a very hardy plant.. not sure if amazons could survive being in the bleach the time it takes for BB to die (I had mine in a 1:20 bleach solution for 4 mins)

This bleaches the BB (funny enough) so it turns yellow/whitish but dies and eventually rots away (be sure to de-chlorinate the plants immidiately after the bath before putting them back in the tank

[henward]

i dont mind getting sae at all.

i will look around for it

problem is that some plans are so overwhelmed, that i am thinking of starting again.

but i can also trim leave with really bushy BBA and let the plant recover while sae keps it in control.

My tank, video was on here. you can see the extent, how many sae should i have?

[alanmin4304]

Move 1 ---get the chemistry right.

[henward]

the entire system is 2500 litres.

Turnover is average 350 to 400 litres per day over 24 hours trickel fed.

how does one get the chem right in this set up?

excel is no problem, i can buy a large bottle - problem is how much do i use as the turn over is so rapid.

if i go with the option:

crypts and twisted val are unaffected completely.

i acn make a move to those plants and retainly the amazons that are unaffected. then at the sme time put bba eating fish.... would this work perhaps?

or is it a trial and error thing? lol

its not practical for me to separate the systems.

[Rob]

I have this vague rememberance of people reporting that val doesn't like flourish excel - may want to check on that since your twisted val is going well at the moment.

[Neon]

I've found applying excel directly onto the BBA with a syringe works well, but yeah the val might be a problem.

Would be helpful if you could turn off the water circulation temporarily while you apply the excel.

[fordayzbro]

the entire system is 2500 litres.

Turnover is average 350 to 400 litres per day over 24 hours trickel fed.

how does one get the chem right in this set up?

excel is no problem, i can buy a large bottle - problem is how much do i use as the turn over is so rapid.

if i go with the option:

crypts and twisted val are unaffected completely.

i acn make a move to those plants and retainly the amazons that are unaffected. then at the sme time put bba eating fish.... would this work perhaps?

or is it a trial and error thing? lol

its not practical for me to separate the systems.

Your turnover seems a little low. Increase you filtration if possible, a good way to judge if your flow is strong enough is to look at your plants... they should all be moving like there is a small breeze. Also, when you spot dose with excel turn off you filter so the excel is not blown away. I usually leave mine off for 5 minutes and the BBA has turned red by the following morning

[Rob]

@Fordayzbro - I think Henward's 'turnover' listed is not the filtration rate, more the volume of water that is getting changed through a continuous water change system.

[Joe]

Apparently Flourish Excel will melt val.

The next best thing, which I've found works really well, is to overdose the tank with API Stress Coat. Suck it up with a syringe, and squirt it directly on to the algae. Or you can just dump it straight into the tank if you are too lazy :lol:

It's important to do lots of water changes when dosing because when the algae dies you have all that dead decaying algae in your tank, so some of the water needs to be regularly replenished.

[fordayzbro]

@Fordayzbro - I think Henward's 'turnover' listed is not the filtration rate, more the volume of water that is getting changed through a continuous water change system.

Eh...... I thought that was the same thing...if not I retract my statement. I mean circulation sorry