# BBA on cyperus helferi, should I just cut the whole plant?



## greenfin (Nov 4, 2013)

Doing my weekly mainenance...

In the last week BBA has showed up on my helferi. I've been snipping out the leaves one by one that are affected. By the time I'm done that the plant won't have much left. Should I just cut it at the base and have all new growth? It grows fairly quickly. All the cut ends will yellow and die anyway. It'll look awful in a few days. Hmm. I'll check back in a bit but I'll carry on with my trimming.

Thanks!


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I sprayed a diluted solution of Metricide on mine when I got a BBA outbreak, when the tank water was drawn down for a wc. No harm done. Trimming it would work too, but you would have to solve the BBA ongoing problem in your tank, whether it's CO2 diffusion or something else, or it'll just keep coming back.


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## greenfin (Nov 4, 2013)

Thanks!
So if I get the water level down so the plant is more or less out of the water...? Do I have to worry about the metricide affecting my blyxa? I think the BBA might have come on because last week I changed the angle of the spray bar towards the surface and maybe this changed how the CO2 circulates in the tank. I'm changing it back anyway. 

So far no BBA on anything else. This plant had a little bit of BBA in my previous build but I figure it was killed off during the dry start. Ah well.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

It is most effective if it's above water. It's all about the concentration. I have also put in full strength Metricide (only 5 ml) after drawing the water down and injecting it in the area of the plants (because the plants were too small) when I couldn't drain it down far enough without emptying the back of the tank because of the slope of my substrate (2 inch slope front to back). So either way you are putting concentrated Metricide for a short duration on the BBA. When I say short I mean like maybe 2 minutes. Then fill up the tank.

I think the Blyxa would be fine. I dosed a tank with Blyxa in it with Metricide for a while. Problem was the nutrient load was too light and the LED light insufficient and Blyxa died, but not from the Metricide.


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