Brown Algae

[Marci04]

Brown algae has quickly taken over our 125 gallon tank!! Is this unhealthy for my fish and how do we get rid of it??

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Brown algae has quickly taken over our 125 gallon tank!! Is this unhealthy for my fish and how do we get rid of it??

Takes time but you can clean it off and that may speed it up. Mine has slowed quite a bit in the last week, after a month of it.

Here's a link with some suggestions.

http://gwapa.org/wordpress/articles/algae-in-the-planted-aquarium/#diatoms

 

[hackteck]

Is it like dust? If so its probly diatoms this is normal

 

[Marci04]

Yes, it almost looks like dust. It is laying on top of the sand bed and is covering our base rock.

 

[hackteck]

Yea every tank has them they burn themselves out after a while every one gets them

 

[hackteck]

Did you recently set up this tank

 

[angloe1]

My tank has this too. It's not quite finished cycling so I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not. I cleaned some of the decorations in some tank water when I was doing a water change. Good luck!

 

[merelymiche]

Is it getting stringy? It is likely diatoms, which are a result of excessive amounts of silcates and phosphates. I just went through. Spell of brown diatoms, and am now dealing with a green version of diatoms that I mistakenly thought was algae.

The source of diatoms? Tap water! Are you purchasing RO/DI water, or using your own personal RO system? If not, it will be hard to keep these diatoms away! I learned the hard way ... hopefully this helps those of you who were in my shoes a few months ago.

Merelymiche
newbie SW addict

 

[merelymiche]

http://www.aquascapingworld.com/algaepedia/full_view_algae.php?item_id=79&algae=Brown Diatom Algae

Here is a website for more info that I forgot to include in my last post

 

[mr_X]

green diatoms? i don't think there is such a thing.
diatoms are algae. you aren't mistaken. "single celled exoskeletons" isn't really a good explanation, because an exoskeleton is just a skeleton on the outside of something. they don't mention the outside of what. this is an algae bloom.
Diatom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Exoskeleton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

tap water or not, everyone will see a diatom bloom when starting a new system. it's inevitable.