Brown Algae Outbreak

[Princess1982]

Hi All

I have had my new tank set up since October and have very recently had a very quick and severe outbreak of algae. I noticed about a week ago some brownish coloured algae on some of the gravel so I vacuumed the gravel although it didn't really remove much. Now all the gravel is pretty much covered as well as all the ornaments.

The tank cycled really quickly as the water and filter etc were all transferred from the old tank and apart from high ammonia for a few weeks I haven't got any problems with water. The readings taken a couple of days ago are as follows:

Ammonia - 0.25ppm
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 20ppm
PH - 7.8

My tank details are as follows:

180L Fluval with lights, no heater - temp about 17c

1 x leopard plec
1 x black moor
1 x panda moor
1 x white ranchu
1 x red cap oranda
1 x calico ryukin
1 x common goldfish
Malaysian trumpet snails

All approx 1 - 2 inches (except snails obviously) but will get a larger tank when the time calls for it. I know it's fully stocked but I have 2 filters and do regular large water changes to compensate.

Any advice as to what caused this algae and how I can get rid of it would be much appreciated. According to my research my snails and plec are supposed to be eating the stuff!

 

[jcolon]

Diatoms is common in newer tanks and you are still in that time frame. I started to get mine the second month and have had it since then. They do go away on their own, but unfortunately, diatoms use silicates in water to form their shells so if your PWC source is groundwater, there is a chance you may never truly rid of it. Give your tank another month or so, stick to your PWC schedule and see what happens. The link below has some more info on "brown algae"

Brown Diatom Algae Control | Aquariums Life

 

[Princess1982]

That's really helpful. Thanks very much.