How To Get Rid of Black Beard Algae (Causes and Cure for Beginners)

[@markfasolino1483]

I had the same issue with my planted tank! I never had a problem with blackbeard algae in the past, but I introduced pressurized CO2 and I have been dealing with it since.

[@AquariumGenius]

So much fun really 😀😀😀😀 #not

[@monitamarwaha6423]

Well done for 200 subs!!!!! I'm so happy for you right now! You can see from every video hoe much effort goes into them and it definitely pays off! Thanks for so many brilliant vids!

[@AquariumGenius]

Thankss! Over a 1000 subs here we come! If the channel gets big I'm going to think back to today and your kind comments. They motivate me 💪💪

[@monitamarwaha6423]

@@AquariumGenius aw thank you!!

[@woodyfriendron]

Very well explained, keep up the good work. Always interesting and informative videos.

[@AquariumGenius]

Thank you Roy! I appreciate the support 😊 cheers -Bart

[@RaBob]

My friend had to tear down his planted tank when he was moving to another apartment. I helped him transition by temporarily keeping his plants in a spare aquarium I have. But his anubias was covered in black beard algae. Instead of scrubbing or brushing it, I simply put the anubias in a no-fish aquarium I have with amano shrimp. The amano shrimp ate all of the black beard algae off the anubias. He was amazed to see his anubias all clean and green again.

[@haitch04]

Just seen this as I was searching BBA. I think I'm on top of mine now. Low tech tank probably overstocked, I removed leaves and cleaned other areas affected and planted lots and lots of stem plants, did lots of water changes and used a bacteria, Seachem Stability with the new water. I plan to remove some stems and re scape once the problem is solved. I'd be cautious at using liquid carbon if anyone has Vallis as it will die. Nice helpful video.

[@corygang7001]

Very good video, I was trying to get rid of BBA in my low-tech 10-gal planted tank. It was growing right behind the hardscape on a crypt. Thank you! I moved a couple of stones around, and I hope it goes away sooner or later.

[@AquariumGenius]

Thanks Cory! I hope you'll see some progress soon!

[@MichaelsHomeCooking]

Yes my 110 liter tank is almost 4 months old and I am beginning to get BBA. It is growing on one Amazon Sword. When I did a water change on Saturday, I cut it off with cutting the leaf off and got rid of it. Now two days later I see more. I will do the CO2 like you say starting tomorrow.... turning it on one hour before the lights and I usually turn off the CO2 2 hours before the lights go out. I will change that as well. I do have siamese algae eaters, but I have not seen them eat any of it. Thank you for your help!

[@AkhilRane15dec]

Did you try blacking out your tank for 4-5 days. This really takes care of most algae issues. BBA turns red just before it dies off after spot treatment. Spot treatment is more effective of you drop your water level & then treat effected area. Not possible all the time but it really works.

[@AquariumGenius]

Thanks for your advice! I did not try a blackout yet, but it might be something I am going to do in the future. It just seems like so much effort...

[@AkhilRane15dec]

@@AquariumGenius No efforts at all, just turn of lights and cover tank with blanket

[@AquariumGenius]

@@AkhilRane15dec That's true. Have you done this? How do the aquarium plants react?

[@AkhilRane15dec]

@@AquariumGenius Absolutely no effect on Crypts, Vallisneria, Anubias, Hair grass. Java moss looked a bit dull but recovered immediately.

[@peter-pg5yc]

YES, this worked for me tank covered for 5 days or more..Cleaned all items in tank removable with hydro peroxide it works.. rinse well. even the gravel i soaked that too not all just some.. no light 5 days all the beard died turned grey white.. cleaned my filter daily is was green and yucky clogged too no no no peroxide on filter media... just rinse green beard out of filter.... adjust lighting to 6 hours a day...my tank after 5 days had zero black beard...my tank was a freaking black beard paradise it covered everything clogged my filter killed my wisteria.... every 7 days it was like i never cleaned the tank...grrrrrr...... But the lights off 5 days killed and i have ZERO black beard in my tank.. My white decorations stay white..filter doesnt clog.. gravel is colorful... 5 months or more now and my tank is crystal.. I got fake plants silk and they look real, cut them up hot glued to marbles for staging.. The key turn the lighting off, but also remove all the bba you can..it will die turn grew... just get sucked up at water changing cleaning... I scrubbed all items to remove the sheet...a lot of work, my heater was a mess.... My colorful gravel is no longer a black mess... bba sucks and is a real chore to remove.. slimy mess ... its a slow nasty algae builds up then takes over..

[@lucasstiger2386]

Thanks man, great video. Maybe when you do the spot treatment turn off your flow. I've got a lot of work ahead of me.

[@Wolfson47]

Be very careful with liquid carbon or hydro-pyroxide in a tank with fish. I killed all my neon tetras.

[@HalfManHalfCichlid]

all my plants are now either in small pond baskets or are attached to rocks- all easily removable. So I have swords, crypts and anubias. I rotate killing BBA using the following technique. I remove the plants (attached to stones or in baskets) to a large plastic tub. I have a small fan that I place over the plants for 5 minutes to dry them off. I then, using a spray bottle, spray Seachem Flourish excel liberally on the plants for 60 seconds. Let it sit and rinse after the 60 seconds. Kills it every time without any damage to the plants. I started with 5 minutes on the spray and it killed a lot of the plant so the one minute is very important.

[@monitamarwaha6423]

Thank you for this very VERY helpful video!! You're so close to 200 subs!!

[@AquariumGenius]

Yessssss just a couple more! And thanks! Although I hope you never have to face the algae haha

[@carolingram5948]

Excellent video, your info was clear and easy to follow, one of the best I've seen in the last few days as i have bba in my 55 gallon tank and am planning how to reduce its growth. My 90gallon is ok...it has lots of plants and 3 full grown SAE. So doing water changes for elevated nitrates and i suspect also phosphate. Will remove and treat rocks etc, decrease the duration of lights, take some plants from the 90 and plant in the 55, and increase water flow, and dose the tank with Excel. And order some you g SAE. The Emperor 400 has bba also, not sure what to do with that. Will Excel kill the nitrifying bacteria? Wondering if i should use a new filter after i let it run on the 90gallon to get a good load of bacteria. Thanks for the great info.

[@connieposs8361]

Found this video 3 years later! Hope you can help me. My sand under my decor, when I lifted it to clean thouroughly, was black. Im guessing in black beard? I new to my 32 gal tank.

[@UncalBertExcretes]

BBA can thrive in high flow too it grew the most on my filter outlet in my tank, I found dosing liquid co2 helped get rid of it I think it allowed my plants to out compete the algae for food.

[@jeffalbillar7625]

What is liquid CO2?

[@UncalBertExcretes]

@@jeffalbillar7625 I am sorry I ment liquid carbon! It helps boost your plants ability to uptake more nutrition, out competing the algae for.food

[@adamminer5747]

To the point with all the info! Subscribed!

[@edvardo6969]

Best treatment to BBA is dosing excel 3x the recommend dose to the water column with water change 48 hrs later. Sensitive species of shrimp and fish may die with the Tx. SAE fish may help also , only one young fish per tank.

[@HalfManHalfCichlid]

I let the BBA grow everywhere- except my plants. There are certain nutrients in aquarium water that BBA loves, I let the BBA on rocks, glass and driftwood consume those nutrients so there are less nutrients left over for the BBA that might grow on plants.

[@bookmouse2719]

I have a small tank, with small filtration system, I have an air stone running and I have BBA on my nubius plant and the black filter tubing. So I scraped it and cut back the plant and turned back my lights time on. I have heard that hydrogen peroxide can help with this but I can't find it in my country, maybe I could try the pharmacist.

[@zoticaquatics1609]

Great video!👍🏼 Super Informative thank you‼️

[@kuldipbutail3300]

A small suggestion. When spot dosing the BBA turn off your filters for 10 minutes. Then it will be effective.

[@bluepicasso9675]

excellent summary

[@ginacadrette4809]

I have artificial plants that are covered with BBA. Is there a different way to tackle BBA? HELP!

[@anthonysanpietro8704]

I’m about to move and have had BBA for quite some time now. I’m thinking of restarting my aquarium from scratch. Should I just replace the lava rock? I’m afraid to completely clean the aquarium just to reintroduce. Any input would be great!

[@rstampa2u]

My question is. When I spot treat for BBA should I turn off the lights or leave them on?

[@bluenose3225]

If you treat the BBA directly turn filters or wave makers off for 5 mins

[@kellybanh3126]

What if I stopped using my co2 in addition to using some methods I've seen to tackle bba? I haven't seen anything about that so far in videos I've watched. I introduced co2 about a week ago and now I have bba. Would eliminating the use of co2 help?

[@KefKedes]

Erg goed uitgelegd. K zal eens kijken wat bij mij t probleem kan zijn. Heb in ieder geval de rotsen waar het op zit al gekookt en geschrobt. Wel moet ik zeggen. Dat het niet meer lijkt verder te groeien sinds de laatste paar maanden. En t enigste wat ik destijds heb gedaan. Is mijn ruit baardalg vrij gemaakt. En een wavemaker toegevoegd voor mijn cichliden. Misschien zou een probleem nog kunnen zijn dat ik maar 1 plantje heb? (Dit omdat alles word opgegeten door de Afrikaanse cichliden in mijn bak)

[@chrystalpillow829]

I was dosing flourish excel before my BBA problem started and began spot treating after I noticed it and it hasn’t killed it for me either. Maybe slowed it down a bit. Trying peroxide now. Has your problem cleared up?

[@AquariumGenius]

I've got to be completely honest and must say that my problem has only gotten worse. The spot treating did work for me in the end! But the rest grew faster than I could get rid off so I stopped. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[@A.B.C.590]

@@AquariumGenius when you dose flourish excel on the plants you have to stop the flow in your aquarium for around 10-15 min so the liquid carbon can do its job properly. After that, the next day your bba will get a pink color and than if there are some Amano schrimp it will be completely gone.

[@steveroberts7373]

Not only do the siamese alge eating fish get fairly big, they will also dig and alot of times dig up plants. Happened to me atleast, my plants were constantly being dug up.

[@AquariumGenius]

Yea by now I've also established they are quite a poor choice to tackle BBA. Somebody else told me they only eat BBA when they are young and stop doing so once they get bigger.

[@koyel7961]

Thank you

[@pa.fishpreacher6166]

do you leave the pump indefinetly

[@AquariumGenius]

I do, yes. It's important to keep it running at all times so there's new water flowing through the filter that can feed the bacteria that are housed in your filter.

[@raghulrags]

You can dose 3times the dose of liquid carbon provided u will do water change in 24 to 48 hours and this cycle can be repeated 3 times at a stretch but only for algae other than BBA.. For BBA use hydrogen peroxide and Siamese algae eater..

[@briansomers4753]

can you please explain how to us the hydrogen peroxide

[@raghulrags]

@@briansomers4753 take it in a syringe and spot dose over BBA there will be bubbles raising from the algae and they will get bleached over time and dissolve..

[@davorin5428]

haha, I got BBA in kilos in 700l tank. I bought 3 siamese alge eaters and it is like they came to all you can eat restaurant :)))

[@chrisc7566]

People say get snails, shrimp, or siamese algae eaters.... None worked for me. What ate it was mumba Cichlids who are vegetarian!

[@AquariumGenius]

Oh wow I've never heard about that before! Very interesting

[@gardengreatness1457]

It looked like your algae was turning pink in the video. I have a similar issue with a mix of staghorn and beard algae. It isnt crazy yet so it needs nipped in the bud. Where I spot treated it is turning pink. You do have to kill the flow for 15 minutes or so. I also dipped the hearty plants that could be removed to save the dosage from going too high because I have anachris which is sensitive. So far so good.

[@DavidDavis311]

One thing that every single video ignores, including this one, is that algae needs nutrients to grow. Short of removing every effected item from the tank step one should always be make sure you nutrient levels are as low as possible. In other words get your nitrates( and possibly phosphates) down. Then work on your spot treatments and so on.

[@AquariumGenius]

Hey David, thanks for the comment! I don't necessarily agree though (says the guy with algae issues). I think it's more important that nutrients are available in a balanced way. As longs as it's not too much of course. But aiming for 0 dissolved nutrients is not beneficial for plant growth.

[@DavidDavis311]

@@AquariumGenius I agree. Zero is bad. However keeping nitrates low as reasonably possible is a good idea. I found your video because I’m having the same problem just not as bad as yours. My bba started when I neglected my water changes. I now keep my nitrates around 20 and the spreading has slowed dramatically. I will tell you something amazing I’ve just seen which is my nerite snails eating the bba off my hard scape . The only thing is they’re hitting smaller patches at a time. I only have 3 in a 55 gallon so I’ll be heading out to get more. Will let you know how it turns out. But they are definitely eating it. They may have motivation due to low nitrates providing only limited algae (other than bba) for them to eat.

[@AquariumGenius]

That's amazing! Never knew nerite snails ate BBA. Thanks for sharing David. Have a lovely day.

[@Letsknow-h2z]

hey turn of your filter before spot treating

[@MDBD2405]

BBA nightmare

[@rodviolintv9547]

you're so handsome

[@AquariumGenius]

Oh that really is a compliment, thanks :)

[@chrisc7566]

that accent !

[@larrystallions2466]

To much food stop feeding fish feed once a week watch father fish