Pressurized CO2=BBA??

What filtration do you use? And, how are you maintaining good water circulation in the tank? Unless you make sure the water circulates around the whole tank you can't be sure all areas are seeing enough CO2 in the water.

 

Tom ,she is on pressurized co2.
Regards

 

Did you stop using Excel once you went pressurized? That may have been a factor.

 

I believe the key reason for the BBA is not the presence or lack of C02 but rather that DIY often produces variable amounts of it, confusing the plants. The same thing could happen with injected CO2, if the amount injected was frequently changed.

There are many planted aquariums that do not have BBA problems even though they do not inject or add CO2.

Bill

 

Excel isn't needed when you have pressurized CO2, but it can be useful for killing offf algae occasionally. So, I suggest you don't dose it regularly.

 

Will Excel only kill BBA if overdosed.

 

FWIW, I had a problem with BBA on some driftwood. I applied Excel directly to the BBA during a water change when the wood was above the water line and within a week there was no BBA left on the wood. That has been a month ago and it has yet to come back.

 

Excel seems to kill most BBA when dosed at 1.5 to 2X the recommended dosage, usually in one dosing. I have read that it also kills it, but slower, at the regular dosage.

One problem we may all run into is that we set up our filter output/input and powerhead, etc. in a newly set up tank, with newly planted plants. It works fine and all the plants grow rapidly. But, then the plant mass gets so big it interferes with the water circulation we so carefully arranged, and BBA starts to grow in areas with little or no flow. The lesson to be learned, is to do regular pruning, even minor pruning several times a week, to avoid the huge buildup of plant mass.

 

But I like that build up of plant mass, Vaughn, lol. I have a powerhead that I was thinking of adding but I hate the idea of more equipment in the tank. That leaves me with buying a larger filter, also an idea I don't cherish at the moment. What can I say, I'm tight, lol.