BBA Outbreak

[Aknickolai]

Last week I did some plant re-arranging in my 72 bow front and a major pruning. I removed a fair amount of plant mass, but it is still densely planted. After I finished up I did a 50% water change and resumed my dosing schedule, which is:

3/4 tsp KN03 3x a week
3/16 tsp KH2P04 3x a week
Traces and iron on days I don't do NPK ferts
50% weekly water change

The tank has a lot of light 315W of PC 6700K from a Coralife fixture (260W) and a small AH Supply strip (55W). The 55W light runs 12 hours a day and the 260W runs 8 hours a day. C02 injection is currently controlled via a PH controller. There is not a lot of bounce because I use an ideal needle valve and the injection rate is well tuned for the tank. Filtration is an XP4 and I have 2 power heads in the tank to circulate the water.

On to the problem, I had my buddy do my dosing last week because I was away on a trip (everything was pre measured out for him) and when I got back BBA attack! I pruned all the afflicted leaves off to get the BBA out of the tank. But I am at a loss for the cause of the outbreak. From what I have read it seems inconsistent C02 is the culprit. I am going to swap my C02 injection over to a timer system tonight. Is there anything else that I am doing wrong that may be contributing to the BBA?

 

[VaughnH]

You seem to be running over 4 watts per gallon for 8 hours a day! That can be done, but you have to be very nearly perfect in everything else you do if you use that much light for that long. You really don't gain enough from all of that light to justify all of the needed care that results. (my opinion)

 

[Aknickolai]

Yeah I guess that is a bit much light. It was partially driven to get my HC to stop gowing up, but that is probably more of a light penetration issue. I'll try lowering the amount of time all the lights are on, maybe just 1-2 hours a day at max wattage.