brown algae problems

[kevin quarmby]

hi all just needed to ask a few things about brown algae problems i,m having with my tanks its been a problem for a couple of years now i have an african cichlid tank i have 2 eheim canester filters running in a 87 gallon tank air stone and a new wave maker just added, the lights are led strip lights one is blue the other is blue and white i have these on for about 9 hours a day i do a 35% water change every week and clean alternate filters every 3 weeks but hover gravel every week when i do the water change, i only feed my fish every other day its heavily stocked with about 30 fish all the fish are heathy no problems at all but i get persistent brown algae on my resin ornaments and plants which are plastic as anything i put in real gets shredded no matter what it is i keep it in control on gravel and glass at moment there is none growing on them it affects resin over time and plastic plants all the time, my water does have highish nitrates but being the fish need hard water which mine is i don,t think i can do anything about that any suggestions as to what i,m doing wrong or what other things i can try to combat it at all i have no other type algae growth in tank

 

[Caliban07]

hi all just needed to ask a few things about brown algae problems i,m having with my tanks its been a problem for a couple of years now i have an african cichlid tank i have 2 eheim canester filters running in a 87 gallon tank air stone and a new wave maker just added, the lights are led strip lights one is blue the other is blue and white i have these on for about 9 hours a day i do a 35% water change every week and clean alternate filters every 3 weeks but hover gravel every week when i do the water change, i only feed my fish every other day its heavily stocked with about 30 fish all the fish are heathy no problems at all but i get persistent brown algae on my resin ornaments and plants which are plastic as anything i put in real gets shredded no matter what it is i keep it in control on gravel and glass at moment there is none growing on them it affects resin over time and plastic plants all the time, my water does have highish nitrates but being the fish need hard water which mine is i don,t think i can do anything about that any suggestions as to what i,m doing wrong or what other things i can try to combat it at all i have no other type algae growth in tank

Try some floating plants. If they don’t get eaten they will help clean the water. Amazon frogbit, or salvina I’d go with. Duckweed is tasty and will probably be eaten.

 

[charliebankston]

I built a hanging basket and put a whole pothos in it to help with nitrates in my heavily stocked African tank. That diatom brown algae like stuff feeds on your nitrates. I know it's hard to keep them down in a heavily stocked tank like that

 

[charliebankston]

I drilled this out, but you could use anything that protects the roots and still allows water flow

 

[Caliban07]

I drilled this out, but you could use anything that protects the roots and still allows water flowView attachment 319651View attachment 319652

Great Idea.