kindafishy
Aquarium Advice Activist
Ok, not really. But MAN am I sick of looking at this brown algae crap. Even worse, I am sick of getting conflicting information on how to deal with it.
Some say it's because I don't have enough light, others say too much. Need CO2, don't need CO2, too much fertilizers, not enough. Argh. Or, they say, it is because I am feeding too much. Which I am not, of course. I have even 'trained' the little buggers (the fish, that is, not the algae) to catch a single grain of food in their mouth before it hits the floor. Nothing hits the floor. They catch it, or they don't eat, and they know it. There is no extra rotting food anywhere. I do a couple of 25-50% (depending on my mood) pwc's every week. Sometimes more. I vacuum and pwc like a crazy lady on a mission. My filter is great (Eheim canister), my tank was properly cycled, my parameters are all fine. And my tank is not overstocked: I have two tiny (yet comical) apistogrammas in 64 liters. I am at my wits end. This has been going on for about a month now.
This crap is pretty much confined to my plants. It is not too bad on the low light plants (java fern and anubias). It is worse on the med light stuff like ludwigia cardinalis and hygrophila siamensis.
So question : what if I were to throw out everything but the java ferns and the anubias (whereby I will either nuke them or light them on fire and do a dance of joy as the algae bursts into flames), and replace those plants with new java ferns and anubias ? Could the problem be that I am trying to grow medium light plants in low lights? Weird, because my hygrophila are growing like weeds.
And now I am not even sure it is diatoms. On the hydrophila the 'diatoms' seem to have tiny little hairs. Some of the brown stuff wipes off like dust, but some of it seems to really stick.
Talk me down off the roof.
Some say it's because I don't have enough light, others say too much. Need CO2, don't need CO2, too much fertilizers, not enough. Argh. Or, they say, it is because I am feeding too much. Which I am not, of course. I have even 'trained' the little buggers (the fish, that is, not the algae) to catch a single grain of food in their mouth before it hits the floor. Nothing hits the floor. They catch it, or they don't eat, and they know it. There is no extra rotting food anywhere. I do a couple of 25-50% (depending on my mood) pwc's every week. Sometimes more. I vacuum and pwc like a crazy lady on a mission. My filter is great (Eheim canister), my tank was properly cycled, my parameters are all fine. And my tank is not overstocked: I have two tiny (yet comical) apistogrammas in 64 liters. I am at my wits end. This has been going on for about a month now.
This crap is pretty much confined to my plants. It is not too bad on the low light plants (java fern and anubias). It is worse on the med light stuff like ludwigia cardinalis and hygrophila siamensis.
So question : what if I were to throw out everything but the java ferns and the anubias (whereby I will either nuke them or light them on fire and do a dance of joy as the algae bursts into flames), and replace those plants with new java ferns and anubias ? Could the problem be that I am trying to grow medium light plants in low lights? Weird, because my hygrophila are growing like weeds.
And now I am not even sure it is diatoms. On the hydrophila the 'diatoms' seem to have tiny little hairs. Some of the brown stuff wipes off like dust, but some of it seems to really stick.
Talk me down off the roof.
