polgara Posted October 10, 2005 Report Share Posted October 10, 2005 Have made myself a diy co2 unit for one of our tanks and theres a little bit of black algae in the tank, will the co2 make this grow like nuts too... other wise gonna have to go buy some flying foxes to start eating it but will these guys be ok with guppies, platties and bn, that are all breeding? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig Posted October 10, 2005 Report Share Posted October 10, 2005 the CO2 should actually help get rid of the black algae, and don't know if i'd put a flying fox in with gup's,they can get quite aggressive,and scratch the sides of other fish. your plant's will grow heap's,just keep an eye on ph levels they can drop suddenly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polgara Posted October 13, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 well started the co2 up last night and ph has been fine... but if you ask me the bba looks like its growing more... are you sure the co2 will help get rid of it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted October 13, 2005 Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 I have never used CO2 but would have thought it would increase algae growth since it is just a lower plant form. Have no experience though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowman Posted October 13, 2005 Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 I had quite a lot of BBA but noticed when i started using a Nutrafin CO2 setup it's not affecting new growth anymore, my reasoning is that whatever excess nutrients were causing the BBA are now being used by plants that are growing a lot faster. I think anyway LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiverJohn Posted October 13, 2005 Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 Hi Pol', I think snowman is on the right track. However i did have an issue with BBA and if its got a strong hold you may need to be a bit more proactive to get it knocked back. Then the plants can establish themselves a bit better. Heres a few things i did... 1) reduce lights to 8 hours a day for up to a week. 2) Double dose with "SeaChem Excel" the one with carbon in it. 3) Potentially the most drastic! I made up a solution of Aluminium Sulphate in a 10 litre bucket. Remove plants and soak them in the solution for between 15 minutes and 2 hours. Remove from the solution wash plants in tap water, then wash again, the wash in a bucket of tank water. Then your plants are ready to stick back in the tank. In my tank BBA was history! !!! Aluminium Sulphate is available at garden Centers about $5 a 500g bag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig Posted October 13, 2005 Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 hi, fertilization with iron or CO2 usually gets rid of it.also possible is filtration through peat[for at least 2 months] to lower water hardness and ph. replace too-old fluro's.that's out of a aquarium plant book. also,customers at work reckon florish XL,double dose,get's rid of it. snowman is on to it,as this algae thrives on nitrate-rich,hard water. the CO2 will make the plants take off,they will starve the algae out. in Qteen at work we had a tank that was full of it stuck everywhere,we dropped the ph6.5 and put in peat filter for these tiny little gourami's that were coming in.halfway through the 6wks the algae just started to fall off the walls of tank,by the end it was all gone. shelley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcookie Posted October 13, 2005 Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 Co2 is all good - heaps of cheap'n'easy ways for a temp fix too. But even quicker is a couple (or four) of Siamese Flying Foxes. They LOVE the stringy algae!! My SFF's are quite often shunted from tank-to-tank as a quick and easy (and lazy?) fix to algae problems as the pop up. Cheaper than fish food too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artful Posted October 19, 2005 Report Share Posted October 19, 2005 the CO2 will lower your pH but you may need to stabalize the pH drop by using some pieces of coral in your filter. Measure the pH and GH and add or remove the coral until you get a constant reading. GH of 4 is a good level to aim for, also you could do 50% water changes weekly until the nitrates drop to an undetectable level, this will also drop the phosphate. you will need to bring the nitrates back up again as plants require nitrogen. for their green colouring, around 10ppm is a good level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.