Why So Much Brown??

[Just Another Fish Guy]

Hello everyone!

My tank is starting to get some brown algae on the back glass and on the decorations. I've done some reading around and see that this mostly happens in new tanks, but my tank has been up and running for well over a year now.

I will admit that I'm a bit on the overstocked side for a 60 gallon community, but I'm running two Emperor 400 filters and do 50% weekly water changes. Ammonia and Nitrite are always at 0ppm and Nitrates don't make it over 20ppm. I have the Satellite LED light bar that I run for about 10 hours a day.

I added some Ottos to hopefully help with the algae, but I'm not sure if there's anything else I can do to prevent it?

Any ideas?

 

[ImACoolguy]

Cut the light down to 8 hours a day. Is the tank near a window?


Caleb

 

[Just Another Fish Guy]

Not near a window at all. The last few days I've actually only been running the lights 5 hours a day...but I still see the brown getting worse.


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[Just Another Fish Guy]

Any other suggestions??

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[Dallascowboys16]

You could try a two or three day black out and see what happens, just lights out and cover the tank entirely in towels. Can we see a picture of the Algae? It is hard to diagnose exactly what you have because there are a lot of brownish algaes.

 

[ImACoolguy]

Other symptoms of brown algae:

Over feeding
Lack of water changes


Caleb

 

[Just Another Fish Guy]

Here is a picture of it. I feed once a day and do weekly water changes of 50%.

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[Dallascowboys16]

Here is a picture of it. I feed once a day and do weekly water changes of 50%.

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It almost looks like diatoms which are caused by excess silicates (Think I spelled it right) in the water.

 

[Just Another Fish Guy]

And how would I solve that issue?

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[biondoa]

It looks to me from the picture that your decorations are not living. If that is the case, there is no reason to keep the lights on except when you want to enjoy looking at your tank. The fish will be fine in the ambient light, unless in a closet or dark basement. I would say turn off the lights until you want to enjoy looking at your tank.

 

[Mattyfelts]

if diatoms, they will eat the silicates and die out on their own...

 

[Dallascowboys16]

if diatoms, they will eat the silicates and die out on their own...

^^^^This is true. How long have you had this problem though? If more than a week or so it is not likely it is Diatoms because they likely would have starved out by now.

 

[ImACoolguy]

Doesn't look like diatoms to me... But if it is they will just eat the silicates. No more silicates= no more diatoms.


Caleb

 

[Just Another Fish Guy]

I have had this problem for a couple months now. All decorations are fake. I know I'm overstocked...but I do weekly water changes of 50% and my nitrates are never over 20ppm. I do know that I have very soft water...not sure if that has anything to do with it.

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[Just Another Fish Guy]

Could my soft water have anything to do with it ?

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[Just Another Fish Guy]

I have a water softener that I get my water from...perhaps that could have something to do with it?


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