Best way to fight Brown algae

[JDogg]

ok first my tank info...

Ammonia/nitrite 0
nitrate 20
ph 8.0
po4 2 (i really can not get this down... do not get me started on my tap water )

dose no3, k and excel

ok some of my plants (well all of my plants really) have brown algae on the leaves. neither my otos OR rubbernose pleco seem to touch it.

according to here they suggest higher light levels, currently i have 1.07 wpg but am thinking of increasing to 1.7 wpg.

i do not think it is diatoms, otos love those if i am not mistaken, must be "true" brown algae...

TIA

 

[IceH2O]

I had the same problem. I knew my dosing was correct and had it verified on numerous sites.

I added a powerhead to the tank to increase water movement and boom it started to disappear. Its all gone now.

My tank set up in the 75 gallon tank is

XP3 spraybar on the left wall pointing slightly down,maybe 15-20 degrees
Penguin 200 in the middle of the tank,left side of brace
Aquaclear 20 PH on the right wall in the back corner facing the left wall, that way the flow is against the back wall from right to left.

 

[JDogg]

I had the same problem. I knew my dosing was correct and had it verified on numerous sites.

I added a powerhead to the tank to increase water movement and boom it started to disappear. Its all gone now.

My tank set up in the 75 gallon tank is

XP3 spraybar on the left wall pointing slightly down,maybe 15-20 degrees
Penguin 200 in the middle of the tank,left side of brace
Aquaclear 20 PH on the right wall in the back corner facing the left wall, that way the flow is against the back wall from right to left.

i do not have much water flow, i just have a hob filter that is turned to low because it overflows if turned to high (any suggestions on fixing that would be greatly appreciated too)

 

[imrandome1]

Moss ball? may sound stupid but since i added 2 moss balls the rate of growth has lowed, just a suggestion.

 

[malkore]

brown algae isn't algae, its brown diatoms, and they feed off silicates in your water column.

you need patience. I'm assuming this is a fairly new tank (less than 6 months old) and will thus go through a diatom phase.

I have found that diatoms don't like 3wpg of power compact lighting, but its not necessary to add light just to stave off naturally occuring diatoms.

ottos will eat it too.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I had the same problem. I knew my dosing was correct and had it verified on numerous sites.

I added a powerhead to the tank to increase water movement and boom it started to disappear. Its all gone now.

My tank set up in the 75 gallon tank is

XP3 spraybar on the left wall pointing slightly down,maybe 15-20 degrees
Penguin 200 in the middle of the tank,left side of brace
Aquaclear 20 PH on the right wall in the back corner facing the left wall, that way the flow is against the back wall from right to left.

i do not have much water flow, i just have a hob filter that is turned to low because it overflows if turned to high (any suggestions on fixing that would be greatly appreciated too)

Is the filter pad clogged. Sounds like it needs replacing. If the tank is fully cycled, then replacing the pad won't hurt anything.

 

[JDogg]

brown algae isn't algae, its brown diatoms, and they feed off silicates in your water column.

you need patience. I'm assuming this is a fairly new tank (less than 6 months old) and will thus go through a diatom phase.

I have found that diatoms don't like 3wpg of power compact lighting, but its not necessary to add light just to stave off naturally occuring diatoms.

ottos will eat it too.

if you read my original post you will see that my otos AND plecos will not touch it

if it is diatoms then there must be a reason why mu well established tank is all of a sudden getting an abundance of silica :?

can i get something to remove the silica?

tank is 2 years old

Is the filter pad clogged. Sounds like it needs replacing. If the tank is fully cycled, then replacing the pad won't hurt anything.

i can put in a clean filter pad AND take out the sponge and if i turn up the flow above the lowest possible setting it overflows. not onto the ground, but over the intake tub, which does no good cause it is not being filtered.

 

[rjouben]

brown algae isn't algae, its brown diatoms, and they feed off silicates in your water column.

you need patience. I'm assuming this is a fairly new tank (less than 6 months old) and will thus go through a diatom phase.

I have found that diatoms don't like 3wpg of power compact lighting, but its not necessary to add light just to stave off naturally occuring diatoms.

three interesting points ...

I had a diatom explosion a couple nights ago, I'm hoping I'm not totally screwed.

my tank is 20gal, about a month old, cycle really just started last week. I have 20 lbs of tahiti moon sand in there (inert my ***, it's silica based). My tap water has a high level of PO4, I filter the water with a brita before I put in the tank; but I don't think that removes the PO4 much, if at all. Really, the only I've got going for me is a 30" 65W PC 50/50, which by some equations puts me well over 3wpg. Right now, I'm running the lights about 14-15 hrs/day, and that seems to check it a little, at night it grows like mad though. Hopefully, it will die off.

aside: what is the risk of diatoms killing plants? my two original Java Ferns are all but completely covered in it, as are their plantlets. I added a tropica fern to the otherside of the tank yesterday, and an anubis nana today, which at this time are still clean.


~rj

 

[DeFeKt]

a worthy read :

http://www.sydneycichlid.com/content/?page_id=146

 

[malkore]

I did glance through the original post...keep in mind I'm a busy guy...I only caught 'plecos don't touch it'.

If it is diatoms and your ottos won't touch it, then they're too fat on leftover food to feed on algae.

Yes they make a silicate absorbing pad...think drs foster smith carries it...look in the SW section of the catalog...usually with the PO4 absorbing media.



Brita filters don't touch PO4, brita is just a charcoal filter. The DI phase of an RO/DI unit is what strips all PO4 from my understanding.

 

[JDogg]

I did glance through the original post...keep in mind I'm a busy guy...I only caught 'plecos don't touch it'.

If it is diatoms and your ottos won't touch it, then they're too fat on leftover food to feed on algae.

well i do not think they get too much excess food a feed only what the other fish can eat in just a few minutes and 99% of it never reaches the lower 1/3 of the tank. but i do not know that as a fact. i guess i can just let all my fish fast for a few days and see if the otos do a better job with no outside food added to the system

 

[fish_4_all]

That should work well with my experience. My BN pleco had not been really going after the spot algae on my tanks until I started to skip feedings once in a while. Now they rasp hard at the algae and do really well with it. I also had the brown algae/diatoms on my Red Wendtii and my BN tried to eat it but just destroy the leaves. I think I got it from the planter I put in the tank for the Wendtii, I made the ceramic planter in my dad's shop. I have since removed all the effected leaves and I hope it comes back but if not, I have others to put in the planter.

Did you add anything that might have silica in it? Ceramic rings, caves, pottery, clay or anything similar that might be causing it?

My wendtii is also right in front of the outflow of my AC20 and there is a decent flow so I don't know if that is the cause but that is only my experience. I have heard that some crypts don't like high flow rates right to them.

 

[JDogg]

Did you add anything that might have silica in it? Ceramic rings, caves, pottery, clay or anything similar that might be causing it?
.

nope, nothing with silica..nothing new added in 6+ months (silica or not) unless the otos (only 1 month in my tank) are silica based life-forms 8O

 

[Glenc]

I to have brown algea in my 20 gallon. This is the second time. This tank is well established and has cycled long ago. Yours algea sounds just like mine. My tank is high light, high CO2 and regularly dosed. 50% water change every Fri. The first time the algea got so bad I had to black out the tank to kill it off. It did smother and kill off a few of my more delicate plants. The blackout worked amazingly well, the tank was spotless, no algea of any kind. All was great, but,The brown algea has returned. I have since learned that my NO3 levels are double what I thought they were. I try to keep them at 5 to 10 ppm, they were over 20. Not sure if this is my problem but I have cut down on the NO3 dosing and the algea is not gone yet, but it has definitely slowed down. It's only been a few days so it's to early to tell if reducing NO3 is really helping. I have 4 other tanks running and none of them have the brown algea that my 20 has. None of them have the light level of my 20 either. It's currently at 4 WPG. I've had it as high as 6 WPG, that's when my original brown algea problem started. I believe it is either my fert levels are still out of whack, or I'm running to much light for to long. Still working on it! Hope this helps, good luck!

 

[imrandome1]

I dont even have 1WPG and i still have it, thankfully my pleco eats it

 

[LindaC]

I have it in my 29 gallon tank, which has been running for almost 10 months and I have just under 2 wpg. I find it to be such a nusance, my tank will look so nice after a water change and then about 4 or 5 days later, all my plants look like they are covered in dirt. The algae rubs off some of my plants but can be very time consuming, I'd love to know why it's happening and how to fix the problem.

 

[newfound77951]

as far as silica goes.....don't forget most people's tanks are glass....lots o' silica there...

quartz (non-carbonate) sand is silica also.

diatoms do need silica more than other plants.....groundwater can have varying levels of silica...I doubt there are any commercial (ie for fishtanks) silica test kits out there, but it can be done.