Brown Algae

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hyperman

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jul 31, 2012
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We have a 29G tank that has been going for about 2 months now. We have several groups of different kinds of tetras. All is well, ammonia at 0 and Nitrates are at 10-15. We feed them once a day and the light is on for about 6 hours a day. We clean the gravel once every 2 weeks and do a 30% water change at that time. We have floss as one of the filter media and that is changed once a month and we clean the sponge in tank water once a month. We continue to get brown algae on our plants and the one statue in the tank. Not much on the glass other than at the bottom near the gravel. Is there anything else we can be doing to prevent the brown algae?
 
What you're seeing is a species of algae called 'diatoms'. It's unsightly, but pretty normal in newly set up tanks. There's not really much you can do other than wait them out, which should only take a few weeks or so. You can remove what you can to address it in the meantime, but it will keep coming back until it's run its course.
 
Algae

We have a 29G tank that has been going for about 2 months now. We have several groups of different kinds of tetras. All is well, ammonia at 0 and Nitrates are at 10-15. We feed them once a day and the light is on for about 6 hours a day. We clean the gravel once every 2 weeks and do a 30% water change at that time. We have floss as one of the filter media and that is changed once a month and we clean the sponge in tank water once a month. We continue to get brown algae on our plants and the one statue in the tank. Not much on the glass other than at the bottom near the gravel. Is there anything else we can be doing to prevent the brown algae?

Hello hyper...

Unless you're feeding fry, you don't need to feed your adult fish every day. Aquarium fish can easily live on a couple of small feedings a week. Their stomachs are the size of one of their eyes. It doesn't take much to fill them up. You just need to feed a variety of foods. Feed more and you create a perfect environment for algae. Small water changes of less than half the tank's volume do little to maintain pure water conditions, which is what you want to keep your fish and plants healthy and algae to a minimum. A little algae is natural and good for your fishes' diet.

Floating plants will help reduce the food the algae is using. Duckweed, Common water weed, Hornwort and Pennywort are great for using extra nutrients in the water.

B
 
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