A GREAT RESULT! *Here’s How I BEAT BLACK ALGAE!*

*My battle with black algae is over and, at least for now, I BEAT IT!* In this, the 3rd and final installment of my _Beating Black Algae_ video series I get into the final result of my informal experiment. A result with a surprising twist that ended up making it a *GREAT RESULT* that I’m very happy with!

Watch the entire _Beating Black Algae_ video series, Parts 1 & 2 here:

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Copyright protected music used with permission:
_Baby Bye (Instrumental Version)_
Performed by: *Vicki Vox*

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[blackmatrix]

Hi Ben, I'm pleased my SAE recommendation helped you, as mentioned I'd be lost without my guy, not only is he a great algae eater but also a great charachter in the tank and gets on with everything, never seen any agression whatsoever :)

[TheSalient]

Great information ben thanks for figuring it out

[Rick-xybt]

Love that guitar tune you use in many of your videos!

[joeader]

I have a full grown Siamese algae eater they seem to work harder when they are younger

[softaco]

Great information. I learned something new with the phosphate pads. I usually get BBA after my Co2 runs out and I am too lazy to replace it (100% my fauly). It is always the Anubis that gets blasted with bba for me. Sometimes the crypts too. Never the Java ferns, stem plants or any other fast growing plants. I've noticed that my Panda Garra enjoy eating BBA and turning the blue light setting on down on your lights seems to help stabilize it. Other things that have helped me in the past are having consistent levels of co2 going into the tank and spot treating with h202 (With the filter turned off for an hour).

[sicilianotoronto]

If you get a few platys from the start they will help to control algae taking hold. I also found out recently that they will eat all of the crypt melt leaves. They literally hoovered through them. The SAE is awesome when it gets older, they get chunky like a porpoise, especially the females! Keeping one is fine.

[daveylarson]

That was a close SHAVE !!! Great info !!!

[HalfManHalfCichlid]

Worked for me too. I started with Seachem Excel and hydrogen peroxide and it nearly destroyed the plants

[melsfreshwater]

Great video Ben, going to head out and get some SAE today! love watching your cichlids and coffee 😊

[kronos]

I used 4 flying fox(sae) did nothing to rid me of that bba. Ended up manually removing it spraying all the driftwood with H2O2 then doing a 20 hour light deprivation for a month finally i capped off my fluval stratun with 1 inch of small pea gravel. Unfortunatly the process killed all my plants now im waiting to see if it takes before i start plantimg again

[-d]

I’m going to tell you that your black beard algae isn’t really gone but is just temporarily under control. BBA seems to be almost like cancer in that you fight it and it goes into remission for a period of time until something changes and then it comes back when the conditions are favorable for the BBA.

I know people usually talk about phosphates but I have also found that silicates increase BBA also. Luckily, the same treatments for phosphates usually take care of silicates but people don’t usually test for silicates and as a result sometimes they miss the nutrient source for the BBA and don’t know how to get it back under control because they’re not testing for silicates. If they did, they would see the imbalance and be able to correct it easier.

Also, I would question whether root tabs were actually helping the situation or not. If you’re putting the root tabs in the substrate and you place them deep, the nutrients from the root tabs should be locked into the substrate and picked up by the roots of the plants. It seems to me that what you really need and what I have good luck with are plants that aren’t planted into the substrate. I find stem plants that are allowed to float or Christmas Moss thats allowed to grow out of control do a much better job of pulling the overabundant nutrients out of the water column and reducing the nutrient source for the BBA. For example, I have one of the little floating isolation tanks in an aquarium that I just keep Christmas moss in and let it get out of control in that container. I also don’t see how a root feeding plant is going to pull a lot of nutrients out the water column unless you have something like a under gravel filter pulling the water more actively through there for the roots. The rhizome type of plants that tend to feed out of the water column rather than the substrate have been a more effective way of pulling the excess nutrients out for me.

I also hear people talk about Siamese algae eaters not eating algae very well as they get older. I find this true with a lot of things that people say eat BBA such as amano shrimp and Florida flag fish. They prefer to go after easier things to eat but if you let them go hungry, they will demolish BBA. A word of caution here as SAE’s and Flagfish will also demolish the small leaved plants like rotalia’s before they start on the BBA.

[BaconGod.]

I gave up on all treatments so just bought some siamese algae eaters and in 1 week it was all gone. So now I have a 2gal with the old filter that was covered in blackbeard algae and started cultivating it for just the siamese

[bradvaring]

I have had SAE attach to aa fish before. Not allowed in my tanks.

[Boss-zolw]

None of mine never ever touch cucumber or Zuchini etc
Nerites are great btw, but buy just the one and place into its own container, if after awhile no eggs appear then you have a male and is safe to put in your tanks, Nerites are not Hermaphrodites.
Anyone in the UK know of the equivalent to the EASY GREEN?

[letsgonow]

The thing with Aq-Coop its just Chinese products he puts his name on it with a price increase.

[BJM]

My 4 SAE. have given up eating the algae.

[BenOchart]

Products Mentioned in the Video (Aquarium Co-Op affiliate links - If you use them it supports the channel):

[larrystallions]

I watch father fish food fertilizers cause black beard algae reduce feedings and amounts of food plus spong filters less water flow helps

[vforvictory]

For my tank the light is the root cause

[seanmurphy]

i had some of them there killed my other fish