Brownish algae

[phalough]

I have a friend who has bright green algae in his tank from time to time. I on the other hand have algae from time to time but it's more of a brown colored type. It's comes off easy but whats the deal.

[wolfbane]

I think that is called diatoms, wipes off easily. Bristle nose plec love it!

[Marinemom]

If the tank is relatively new, the brown algae is called diatoms and even if you do nothing about it, it will go away on it's own. It is part of the natural process that a tank goes through when it is maturing into a fully balanced and established aquarium. In my opinion, it takes a good year for this to happen. In the meantime your tank will go through many stages but in the end will be truly amazing.

Diane

[poconogal]

I was having brown diatom algae for a couple of months. My current Discus tank is only set up since February. It covered everything and looked disgusting, although not harmful to fish. I got 2 BN plecos because I didn't want to wait for it to go away on its own. Within 2 weeks, the tank was sparkling. I got another BN for my community tank and I found out that the BNs actually seem to like the brown algae over the green, as that lil guy only ate the green after all the brown was eaten by him. Now I feed them all algae wafers.

Connie