how to get rid of black beard algae

[wreidfishguy]

I am redoing my 65 gallon and have removed all the plants I am going to redesign the tank in a Amazon reef lots of lava rock and driftwood but no plants other than may be a nice Amazon sword plant or 2 I noticed that some of my driftwood as well as the heater cord has black beard algae growing all over them I have found peroxide will kill it and I will pull the wood out and scrub it then let dry a couple of days.also I would like to find any fish that Will eat this stuff.Thank you in advance I know someone has the answers I am looking for I always get great advice from the folks on this site

 

[gerald]

Any lighted tank with few or no plants is inviting algae. Personally I'd rather have black beard algae (Audouinella) than some of the others, like green hair/thread algae and blue-green slime (cyanobacteria) which are far more annoying, to me. "BBA" is providing the same water-quality benefits as plants would.

 

[wreidfishguy]

I try to keep water quality high and h

 

[wreidfishguy]

I try to keep water quality high and have been doing 40 percent water change every week .I have also been told that flag fish and black Molly's will eat it to a certain extent

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Any lighted tank with few or no plants is inviting algae......"BBA" is providing the same water-quality benefits as plants would.

I'm like Gerald, if you stop thinking about algae as a bad thing, and think of it as the invaluable <"biofilm, aufwuchs or periphyton">, then it becomes less of an issue. We don't know what conditions favour any of the algae, but a large plant mass definitely helps in keeping the tank relatively algae free.

If your water isn't too soft for them, Red Ramshorn snails will graze off the sporelings, but they don't eat the visible tufts.

There are a couple of recent threads on UKAPS that cover this area in some detail, have a look at <"What exactly causes BBA, bacterial imbalance ......"> (Have a look at Yo-han's post on page 3. Johan is also a member of Apistogramma forums), and the very long thread that spawned it <"What exactly causes BBA">.

cheers Darrel