candymancan
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Both my tanks have been setup for 8 years constant running now... but every few weeks to a month I have to always wipe down the glass, all my fake plants and ornaments are coverd in brown algae and make it look really ugly... I usually just put them outside and the acid rain we have takes care of it the first time it rains lol. It does rub off easily it isn't like hair algae or super hard to get off green algae it rubs off and desintegrates into particles
But this brown algae wont stop... Now I have all live plants in both tanks, I increased the lighting by 3x the amount it had before.. Both tanks had only 0.5 watts per gallon, now they are around 1.6-2.0 watts per gallon..
I don't overfeed my fish, my nitrates are always around 20-40.. Even doing constant water changes and getting them down to 10 still didn't help.. It isn't because of the plant fertilizer im using or my lighting because like I said it still grew everywhere even with low light and no ferts...
Some people call these diatoms im guessing ? But its so annoying.. So I got like 10 different kinds of Nerite snails and 2-3 oto's in each tank and that helped a lot as far as cleaning Larger leafed plants like the swords and especially the anubias plants.. But smaller leafed plants like the red nesaea and the Limnophila hippuroides and the Java ferns are starting to get coverd in it... Prior my Limnophila hippuroides were either mostly Green and Pink colored.. but now they are brown.. And I cant really wipe it off without damaging them..
So what am I to do ??
But this brown algae wont stop... Now I have all live plants in both tanks, I increased the lighting by 3x the amount it had before.. Both tanks had only 0.5 watts per gallon, now they are around 1.6-2.0 watts per gallon..
I don't overfeed my fish, my nitrates are always around 20-40.. Even doing constant water changes and getting them down to 10 still didn't help.. It isn't because of the plant fertilizer im using or my lighting because like I said it still grew everywhere even with low light and no ferts...
Some people call these diatoms im guessing ? But its so annoying.. So I got like 10 different kinds of Nerite snails and 2-3 oto's in each tank and that helped a lot as far as cleaning Larger leafed plants like the swords and especially the anubias plants.. But smaller leafed plants like the red nesaea and the Limnophila hippuroides and the Java ferns are starting to get coverd in it... Prior my Limnophila hippuroides were either mostly Green and Pink colored.. but now they are brown.. And I cant really wipe it off without damaging them..
So what am I to do ??