Algae help

[CrystalClear]

Hello everyone, hope everyone is doing well.

In my 75 Gal tank I have been humming along quite well and the past week or so I have begun to see brown algae form on the glass and some of the rocks/gravel. It isn't terrible, yet. I have been doing regular 50% water changes weekly and haven't noticed the algae until recently. Could it be a lighting issue? I leave the lights on for about 6 hours, should I cut it back? Anything you can do to get rid of it?


The fish aren't really affected by it and all seem fine, I just don't want it taking over my whole tank and turning into a bigger issue if it is one.

 

[BigJim]

Brown algae is just diatoms. They're common in new tanks. If you have problems with them after the tank is established, oto cats absolutely love diatoms.

 

[kaiofcanada]

Agrees with BigJim

Don't worry about brownalgae so much. Overtime it will go away. 6 hours of light is not very much either...so you should not cut back per se, especially if you have live plants. If you do have live plants...you might consider increasing the lightson. As the plants thrive, the take up excess nutrients and compete with algae for those nutrients, hopefully starving them out so long as there isn't an imbalance.

Keep on doing what your doing with the water changes, as it is good habit for maintenance...and the brown algae will eventually disappear. If you want to get rid of it sooner, you might consider adding some cheap ghost shrimp.