Brown algae.

[SimmonM]

I'm battling brown algae growth in my tank. It's coating the bottom of my tank, walls and seems to have clung to gravel and plant leaves.

Any idea of what can be done to rid myself of this problem?

Thank you in advance!
Simmon
Simmon_Mohan@yahoo.com

[Carol_Roberts]

Those pesky diatoms . . . . I know how to get rid of it in a bare bottom tank. I turn the lights off except for a few hours in the evening when I am view/cleaning/feeding the fish.

[jklnbrg]

Go buy some Otos (Otocinclus affinis). They love the stuff.

John

[drew22to375]

Go buy some Otos (Otocinclus affinis). They love the stuff.

John


I agree I put 3 in my 29gal and it was gone the next day.

[dgmckay]

Is your tank relatively new?

When I set up my 40G tank, and before I had any discus, I experienced a diatom bloom about a month after getting it all set up with 90W of lighting. I performed water changes, siphoning the substrate and stirring it up a bit, on a daily basis. The diatoms went away after about a week. Unfortunately, about a week later, the green algae started coming in.

The good news is that that was months ago and I've had it under control for some time. I reduced my lighting from 12 hours ON to only 10 hours. The other key is to control nutrients. Make sure you're not overfeeding, and perform regular water changes to reduce the nitrate levels. There are products you can buy that will kill off the algae, but you're best to attack the root cause instead. Why add chemicals when you don't need to?

I still get green algae from time to time. It typically shows up in small patches on my substrate. I just attack that area with the siphon when I'm doing water changes and it never gets out of control. I also had green algae growing on the glass, but I clean the inside surface with a magnet brush on a weekly basis now which seems to be enough to eliminate it from the glass before it's even noticeable.

From reading and talking to others, you're pretty much guaranteed to get an algae bloom when starting out a new tank - especially if it's planted. Once you start to get some balance in the tank - between lighting, higher level plants, nutrient levels and your own maintenance - you'll get it under control.

Regards,

Dave.

[ronrca]

Increasing lighting intensity will also help prevent brown algae however other forms of green algae will start to grow instead. Imo and experience, brown algae is the easiest to control and combat using otos and wiping down the tank. ;) Once you get into spot, beard, etc algae, it gets a little more difficult. ;)