Phosphate

[DeborahJane]

I have a slight covering of brown algae on the back of my 110litre community tank. I read that this could be caused by high phosphate in some fish foods, how do i reduce the phosphate levels..I dont over feed and do regular pwc and I dont have an overstocked tank.

 

[CJonline]

Just clean your tank. Scrape the inside of the glass, maybe some of the rocks and such in the tank. Let everything settle a bit, then give the substrate a good vacuuming.

If you can't get the algae to go away like that then you can get a phosphate adsorber. I think fluval makes one you replace every 2 months. It kinda looks like a moss ball in the tank. I don't know much about them, never had to use, them but I saw it in a lfs.

IMO, I would just clean the tank and see if that worked before putting anything in the tank.

 

[jambar44]

It happens in my 240 every now and again (probably less than annually i reckon it had to do with seasons and where my tank is), just like CJonline says i get rid off it by scraping the glass then cleaning the substrate. I've only used a phosphate remover once in about 5 years and that was probably my fault at the end of the day for not paying enough attention to my tank.