OVAS

Aquarist Forums => Freshwater General Discussions => Plants => Topic started by: charlie on January 10, 2009, 05:06:17 PM

Title: correlation of BBA & Organics
Post by: charlie on January 10, 2009, 05:06:17 PM
There is speculation that another cause of BBA other than low  CO2 levels, is high organics.A number of hobbyist are speculating that they have noticed a correlation of high organics as a result of feeding live food , frozen blood worms, brine shrimp etc. , this has not been proven but the coincidence is alarming , since they all report to have been on top of everything else including co2 levels.
Regards
Title: Re: correlation of BBA & Organics
Post by: fischkopp on January 10, 2009, 05:35:12 PM
This is an interesting thought. I noticed quite a build-up in organic matter in some of my tanks - even  when I try to vacuum most of it out during the water change. Feeding definitively includes protein rich foods. And I tend to have a bit of BBA showing up here and there ... I was going to address this with bigger filtration in the future.

Thanks for this info! :)
Title: Re: correlation of BBA & Organics
Post by: KLKelly on January 10, 2009, 07:25:00 PM
My well water I speculate is high in organics.

I have been fighting BBA from the beginning.  My ph rises from 7.6 to 8.3 because aerate it before water changes. Not sure if this makes it low in CO2.

Anyways I gave up - I can't even have plants because the thought of adding CO2 and something going wrong scares me.  I let it grow crazy on the back wall and razor the front and sides.

Questions about BBA - someone mentioned that BBA might be toxic and thats why fish don't eat it (like siamese algae eaters).  Is there any benefit of this at all - it sure doesn't help in my tanks I dont think?
Title: Re: correlation of BBA & Organics
Post by: dan2x38 on January 10, 2009, 08:15:21 PM
I think they mean BGA is toxic.

A school of thought leans towards high pH preventing BBA or majorally reducing BBA. I was reading a lot on the topic and the author was saying you don't see BBA in an African Chichlid tank? Is the pH level also a BBA control?
Title: Re: correlation of BBA & Organics
Post by: Jeff1192 on January 11, 2009, 07:10:30 AM
That wouldn't surprise me at all. While I pretty much solved my earlier BBA from when I started up my CO2 (we won't talk about my hair algae problem  :)) I do still get the odd spot here and there on the glass. I also feed frozen blood worm regularily and frozen brine shrimp once in a while. I'm also bad for over-feeding so this could explain the odd spots of BBA that I get. Interesting theory.

Jeff
Title: Re: correlation of BBA & Organics
Post by: dan2x38 on January 11, 2009, 04:57:11 PM
I read one contributing factor to hair algae is to much iron.
Title: Re: correlation of BBA & Organics
Post by: Jeff1192 on January 11, 2009, 05:17:40 PM
Yeah that's what I'm working on adjusting now......slowly bringing it down but not too fast that I stop growth
Title: Re: correlation of BBA & Organics
Post by: dan2x38 on January 11, 2009, 06:02:26 PM
Quote from: Jeff1192 on January 11, 2009, 05:17:40 PM
Yeah that's what I'm working on adjusting now......slowly bringing it down but not too fast that I stop growth

hard to find the balance for each tank but when you do it's all good.