Brown diatoms?

[mommytoowen]

Anyone have tips on how to get rid and keep the Brown algae at bay? I'm guessing that it's Brown diatoms. I've been trying to cut down on amount of light but not sure what else to do.

 

[brendenscott]

Balance. Right amount of light. Right amount of ferts. Right amount of co2. 10-30ppm of nitrates. 1-5ppm of phosphate. 0 ammonia. I would first check nitrates and ammonia. How is your dosing schedule?

Short term use excel or metricide 14 may help to reduce some. Also clean up crew. But need to find source.

I found in my 10 gallon when nitrates were high and ammonia .25ppm is when I was getting some. Reduced nitrates to 20ppm and ammonia to 0 and it subsided.

Check everywhere for any dead leaves, dead fish. Excess waste. Do a light vacume. Once you get the parameters under control clean some algae and see if it returns. Get some SAE and ottos would appreciate the snacks.

 

[mommytoowen]

Ok my readings have been about .25 or less for ammonia and nitrates were creeping up but still not over the 30ppm. I will look into the things you've mentioned in the post and see if this will help. Thank you so much!

 

[brendenscott]

Ok my readings have been about .25 or less for ammonia and nitrates were creeping up but still not over the 30ppm. I will look into the things you've mentioned in the post and see if this will help. Thank you so much!

Even .25 is high for ammonia and enough to help feed the algae. First find out and clean any dead leaves, anything rotting. Then lots of water changes. Algae hates water changes and clean water.

 

[mommytoowen]

Ok this is great!!

 

[brendenscott]

Ok this is great!!

Do you have a lot of plants? Do you give the plants nutrients? If they do not have enough nutrients and you have sufficient light that will also help algae. Are you giving the plants micros and macros?

 

[mommytoowen]

I have one plant so far and not feeding it anuthing. Didn't realize I should be... shows how much of a newbie I am!

 

[mommytoowen]

For some reason I can't add a photo now to thread... but I believe it's a money tree

 

[mommytoowen]

Here is the photo if it goes through.

 

[brendenscott]

What plant do you have? If you hade just one plant and a sufficient plant light that will also help feed algae. What kind of light do you have? If you have a sufficient light I would get some more plants.

One thing to keep in mind is if you have a plant light and nutrients in water which you will just from fish waste, nitrates, etc then that will feed the algae. The more plants the less nutrients the algae will get because the plants will always get the nutrients first.

But it takes very little for algae to thrive. Very little nutrients, very little light. So if the plant or plants are lacking say with light or nutrients or both or there is too much nitrates or too much ammonia then algae will win. Give the plants what they need to thrive with right balance of nutrients and light then the plants will thrive and algae will not.

 

[mommytoowen]

Ok this is great info!

 

[brendenscott]

And what helps identify the cause here is the kind of algae. Like I said I noticed that high nitrates and high ammonia I was getting brown algae. I did many water changes over the course of a few days. Got nitrates and ammonia down and it subsided.

 

[mommytoowen]

And what helps identify the cause here is the kind of algae. Like I said I noticed that high nitrates and high ammonia I was getting brown algae. I did many water changes over the course of a few days. Got nitrates and ammonia down and it subsided.

I'm going to give this a go. I think I need a plant light from what I've read as well so that may help too.

 

[brendenscott]

I'm going to give this a go. I think I need a plant light from what I've read as well so that may help too.

Don't do small but do large like 50% water changes. Will essentially cut your nitrates and ammonia level nearly in half each time.