Weird algae or bacteria growth help

[Mkeuper6361]

Hi everyone. i have some problem... in my aquarium, there is this brownish dirt-looking bacteria or algae growing. it can come off with a toothbrush (scraping is off) but it "grows" back! If anyone could tell me what this is and how to fix it, that would be great! Its not harming my fish in anyway though.

 

[thegirlzdad]

I had the same issue, and when I researched it I found it was due to having the light on too long. I'm no expert, but that was my issue. . . I hope that helps you.

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[Mkeuper6361]

OK! Great!!! is there a way to fix it???

 

[thegirlzdad]

I just waited for my water chance and it wiped of fairly easy. It was growing in my fake plants and everything. After I got it cleaned off, for the most part, I just limit my lights on time now.

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[meese-a-mew]

Probably diatoms. Is the tank new? Do you have pics?

 

[BBradbury]

Strange Algae

Hello Mk...

There are many kinds of algae. It feeds on extra nutrients in the tank. Change more tank water and change it more often and you'll remove the nutrients. You can also get some floating plants like Hornwort or Common water weed (Anacharis) to use the nutrients and slow the growth of algae.

As the tank ages, the water, fish and plants will balance the water chemistry. You just need to feed a bit less and make sure the tank water is clean as possible.

B

 

[Mebbid]

Diatoms are the brown algae that almost every new tank in existence has to deal with. They feed off of excess silicates in the tank so they will exhaust their food supply and eat themselves out of existence. It commonly takes up to 2 months to get the diatoms to go away. If they persist longer than that then its possible that you have silica in your tap water.

 

[Mkeuper6361]

My tank is about 7 months old and this is fairly new. Doing a water change right now.

 

[Mebbid]

My tank is about 7 months old and this is fairly new. Doing a water change right now.

Yep, those are definitely diatoms. Seasonal changes will also bring silicates into the water supply where they aren't always removed enough. There might not be a whole lot you can do about them aside from decreasing your photo period down to about 5 hours daily. Some fast growing plants could help but again, there are no guarantees.

 

[Mkeuper6361]

Ok so I did a 75% water change and put some algae control in the watet

 

[Mebbid]

Ok so I did a 75% water change and put some algae control in the watet

The algae control additives are usually a terrible idea to add to a tank. They have a nasty habit of pulling oxygen out of the water and have killed entire tanks of fish. I would avoid them whenever possible.