JimM

I've always had this very short fuzzy black algae appear on slow growing or older parts of plants in the past. Currently im fighting one of the most annoying cases of it that I have dealt with..

a little backstory, I received a generous donation of plants from a fellow forum member and it inspired me to tear down and rescape my tank that was in pretty bad shape (a failed project to propagate a full HC lawn with no other plants) I washed all the fluorite, bleached the tank and equipment then set it back up for my new plants.

specs:
29 gallon
110w GE Aquaray PC (10 hours)
pressurized co2 with a highly efficient inline diy reactor on eheim 2026 (tank is very well circulated, no deadspots)
Greg Ferts and lite EI + CSMB
hard water KH 15+

with the initial setup some of the cuttings I made struggle a bit, these are promptly coated with BBA.

every time i've read about this algae people suggest to up co2 to stop its spread.. well my poor rummy nose tetras looked like green brain glass fish stationary at the bottom of the tank hiding under a plant all day, jetting in random nonsensical directions if startled.. KH15+ PH reading about 6.8, I'd say I had plenty of co2. I moved the tetras into my 210 gallon so I'm left with only some cherry shrimp.. and upped the co2 even more today... pray for the shrimp..

the bba is even growing on my fluorite.. I spent the whole day looking for SAE with no success.

has anyone found that high co2 truly prevents its spread or growth? Ive noticed co2 has some effect, but the algae seems to be growing and spreading fine in my nigh seltzer water...