I was noticing that my Wisteria looked really dark and not so nice, but the new leaves were bright green.

Upon closer inspection ("these are loafers", lol, sorry Simpson's reference) I found that there was BBA on the Wisteria! Guh *eye roll.

I leave the lights on around 10-12 hours a day - my ADF's need a 12 hour day schedule. I have some Flourish Excell... I thought I remember hearing that will kill BBA........ do I have to over dose for that though? And, will over dosing kill any of the fish, snails or frogs? (Not sure if OD'ing is toxic to them?)

Thaaaanks! :D

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I think you might be worried on your plants rather than fish since overdosing seems to harm certain "simple" plants... these are usually fast growing plants, like Anacharis, Vals... I forget the names but there are a few more...

I actually underdosed Excel for about a week, to get rid of hair algae but stopped since a drop acted like acid on some of my amazon frogbit. If anything, my plants are doing better/just as good without it. I just added some more Anacharis and my hair algae went away...

Of course hair algae and BBA are completely different.. I've never dealt with BBA but the simplest course of action imo is just to remove the leaves with the BBA and let the rest of the plant grow beautiful and green.

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Cut your light time. Your fish won't notice.

Not sure if it's BBA or Hair Algae... I've seen pics of both and some times they look kinda' the same....

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is your wisteria new? Mine had BBA on them but only on the leaves that didnt grow in my tank. if you bought the plants in a container that didnt have the leaves in water than the leaves adapt and turn into out of water leaves. when you re-submerge them they grow algae. if theyre not new (a month or so in your tank) then it must be nutrient deficiency/too much light. good luck holly!

Does the alga sort of look like soot?

Upon another closer inspection, it's hair algae I think - long, black hair like pieces - ugh! It's gross! And even growing on the drift wood.

We re-set the timers so the lights come on at 2pm and go off at 10pm, so they are getting 8 hours of tank light. (They are across the room from a big glass sliding door, so they do get ambient room light, but not enough to grow algae I don't think.)

Any other tips? (Am I gonna need to pull out the offending plants and wood and do a HP dip?)

*Joe: They were underwater when I bought them, and they are about a month to 2 months in my tank now. I used a liquid fert' once a week and there are root tabs throughout the tank for the DHG.

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I am having the same problem with my tank. I think I will cut my lights to 8 hrs and see what happens. It seems odd because all of the plants started in my 10 gal. and it has no algae and the lights are usually on for about 14 hrs. a day.

Update: I cut the lights to 8 hours a day and the algae is gone! :D Thanks everyone!

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Okay. Now bump to 9 and watch and keep doing it until you find the right point. Give it at least a week in between changes.

I shall! Thanks! So...... once I bump it up and up and it starts to grow again, I cut it back by an hour and I'm good to go?

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yes, in theory.

Thaaaaaaaaaaaanks! :D

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