Its been about a month now and my plants are doing decent I think. I am getting brown algae (sure its diatoms) in my tank. The tank has been setup for atleast 2-3 years now. The plants have only been established in the tank for about a month and brown algae is appearing on the leafs of my Java Ferns as well as on the glass. Its easily removed by just wiping the leafs and it rubs off nicely. My BN pleco is helping a little bit. I thought diatoms are common in new tanks? Which is the reason I am scratching my head.
Lighting is 2X54watt 10k T5 HO & 2X54watt 460nm Antinic T5 HO. They're on for about 7hrs. I only dose with liquid fert Flourish Excel 1mL everyday. The ferns are "sporing" and little leafs are growing off that. However, some of them have fuzzy brown "algae" ? on the brown spores. The coloring on some leafs are brown on the outside and green in the middle section of the leaf. All ferns are tied down to driftwood and are not planted in substrate (sand).
pH is 7.6, gH is between 50 and 100ppm. My kH is around 4 degrees. Nitrates are @ 10ppm (water changed yesterday) Temperature is a solid 80 degrees.
Is this a start of a algae problem? Diatoms? Type of deficiency?
TIA,
J
Lighting is 2X54watt 10k T5 HO & 2X54watt 460nm Antinic T5 HO. They're on for about 7hrs. I only dose with liquid fert Flourish Excel 1mL everyday. The ferns are "sporing" and little leafs are growing off that. However, some of them have fuzzy brown "algae" ? on the brown spores. The coloring on some leafs are brown on the outside and green in the middle section of the leaf. All ferns are tied down to driftwood and are not planted in substrate (sand).
pH is 7.6, gH is between 50 and 100ppm. My kH is around 4 degrees. Nitrates are @ 10ppm (water changed yesterday) Temperature is a solid 80 degrees.
Is this a start of a algae problem? Diatoms? Type of deficiency?
TIA,
J