what is this ?

[angel12]

its a brown powder like susbstance that covers the leafs of my plants it will rub off and then looks like tiny particles of dust in the water column is this - Diatoms ??? if it is how do I get rid of it or reduce it please .. its realy annoying me now also what causes it

Thanks for looking in

:)

[AndyL]

Diatoms or brown algae...

Usually a sign of higher nitrate levels and often low light. Do some water changes, your syphon should be able to remove most of it.

Otto's love to eat the stuff :)

Andy

[angel12]

thanks for the information However im confused as to why this has happened my lights are on for 12 hrs per day continous and the nitrate I would agree is higher than normal .. I also have BBA on my slow growing plants ... this seems to have taken a hold - I allowed the nitrate level to increase hoping that the higher level plants would outcompete the alage for the nitrate and it would dye back .. this seems to have happened but not to the extent I was hoping for ... I dont know what else to try my tank has been set up now for approx 6 months and over the last couple of months the alagae has appeared --- apart from a black out wich will only be at best a temporary fix as the alage will no doubt re appear ... There is very little PO4 in my tank 0.25-0.5 ppm and the nitrate was around the 10ppm mark Co2 is injected into the Water ...Got any ideas ???

if not its back to the BB scenario - this is not the soloution I would choose as I will have to increase the amount of water changes in order to keep the NO3 in check also any ammonia spikes would be diffused by the plants not so in the BB .... :'(

Nothing has changed in the way I treat the tank except in that I feed Beefheart mix to my fish - they seem to have gone off everything else except Diskusin ....


if anyone has any ideas please feel free to send them my way one disheartened teddy :'( :'(

P.S I have Ottos in my tank but they seem to be loosing the battle

[ChloroPhil]

After reading your info I'm willing to bet you don't have enough CO2 and maybe light in your tank. Beefheart is full of Nitrate and Phosphate and will cause algae in an aquarium without enough CO2.

What're your pH and KH?

I doubt it's going to be a matter of more water changes as much as it will be of increasing your CO2 to help increase the plants' metabolism to compensate for the increased bioload in the aquarium.

Is that algae dust or does it have a thicker consistancy? The dust type algae is diatomaceous in nature. The thicker stuff is more than likely a separate creature resulting from increased proteins and sugars in the water resulting from the beefheart.

Try increasing the circulation within the aquarium. Not necessarily the flow rate, just the in-tank circulation. That usually helps get rid of dead spots which help algae like that grow.

Best,
Phil

[angel12]

Thanks for the replies - my tank is only 6 months old so the tubes must be putting about the same light so how come the alage has started to take hold - would it be worthwhile changing the bulbs ? it seems that I also have brown alage at the bottom of the tank around the substrate level but this is only in patches ...the quick growing plants like the Hygrophillia and vallis are still growing quite fast but are coverd in this fine brown Diatom... as for the lower plants well they look like they have been in sandstorm.....

KH is 1 PH is 6.6-6.8 Co2 is injected only when the lights are on as for filtration I have exactly the same set up as before ive diverted the outake lower into the tank to see if this water movement will reduce the level of Diatom on the low/slow growing plants ....

Other than that the only thing I can see is that this Beefheart is the Culprit - boy its hot stuff if this is the case it realy has thrown my water way off .....
Like I said i held of on the water changes hoping that the increased nitrate would allow the plants to outcompete the Alage but this seems to have worked in a small way admitedly it has worked to some extent but the Diatoms are taking over .....

if anyone else has some suggestions fire away

P>S I am in the middle of a 2 day Black out will put the lights back on tomorrow .. Im also starving the fish Hopefully I can get them to take flake food which might aleviate the problem I am having at the moment

Once again Thanks

:)

[Debbie]

If it is truly diatoms it could be an excess of silicates in your water. Do you use RO? I have the same problem and I know its because I don't use RO and we have quite high Si in the water. I just rub it off when I do water changes, mainly because our water is otherwise perfect discus water from the tap and the fish do well.

[ChloroPhil]

Debbie,

High Si levels are something I've thought about lately.... With the substrate in a greater part of the Amazon basin being silica sand wouldn't it stand to reason that higher Si levels may be beneficial to Discus?

I know it wreaks havoc with diatom algae, but I guess that's why God created Ottocinclus...:)

[Debbie]

Phil from some of the things I have been reading Si levels are not detrimental to fish, and if you think about it Si is the 2nd most abundant element on earth making up a little over 25% of the earth's crust . It can't be detrimental to most organisms just because it is so abundant.
From what I understand, dissolved Si is thought to be from the tap, or running water, not from silca sand or Si from the glass used to make the tank. From what I have read this is all educated theories at this point, not proven fact.

[ChloroPhil]

What about all that nice acidic water running over hundreds of miles of all that Silica sand? That's bound to have some effect over time even if the Si isn't very water soluable.

[Debbie]

It's all in the research phase now from what I understand. I find it entirely possible that acidic water could cause more Si to dissolve into solution but so far I haven't heard any proof of that. Here, near Sacramento, CA, our high Si content of our water is attributed to our water being from the American river and a few man-made lakes (dams) that the river flows through.