Is it Brown and Green algae and is it cause for concern?

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dexsting

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So you can see my tank in the 3 photos attached. One of my plants has some brown on the leaves...is this the brown algae which will go away on its own? Something else? Unfortunately, that is the 1 plant I have that I don't know what it is. It looks browner in person, the photo doesn't show it as well.

My 2nd question is on my large central rock there's Christmas moss, and it looks like some green stuff is showing up on the rock...is this algae I should be concered with?

If I should be concerned at all; what do I need to do? Thanks!

Just an FYI, there's a banana plant, dwarf hairgrass, water sprite, Christmas moss, Java moss, Dwarf Sagittaria, and the plant I don't know its name.

The tank has 3-4 ghost shrimp and 1 nerite snail, but no fish (and no plans for fish as aquarium in my office and fish aparently not allowed).

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The brown algae is on an Anubias species. Anubias are not true aquatic plants and do not grow well underwater.

Hair grass is not a true aquatic plant either and will rot.

The green algae on the white rock under the Java Moss/ Xmas Moss, is blue green algae (Cyanobacter bacteria). Try to siphon this out each day and hope it doesn't spread.
 
Algae can be kept in check only by balancing the light and nutrients. Light includes both intensity and spectrum. Nutrients includes plant additives, organics from fish and invertebrates, decaying plant matter, etc. Without fish, obviously the organics will be limited, as will ammonia/ammonium (the preferred source of nitrogen for plants).

No mention is made of plant additives (fertilizers), and without fish present these will be needed. Plants like the Wisteria are fast growing which means higher nutrient requirement, whereas Anubias and similar slow-growing plants might manage to some degree without supplementation.

Ironically, cyanobacteria (the green "slime") is caused by organics in the presence of light. There may well be organics of some type in the rock which are feeding the cyanobacteria. Personally I would not worry about the cyano at this stage, as once you establish the balance (light/nutrients) this may not be ongoing. However, you have very few plants to be using organics or light, and that is another issue with the balance. The light may be more than what these plants need in balance.

I'd like to know if you are adding any nutrients (fertilizers). And any data on the light, including duration daily.

The brown on the Anubias leaf...can it be easily removed with your fingertip? Or not?
 
Algae can be kept in check only by balancing the light and nutrients. Light includes both intensity and spectrum. Nutrients includes plant additives, organics from fish and invertebrates, decaying plant matter, etc. Without fish, obviously the organics will be limited, as will ammonia/ammonium (the preferred source of nitrogen for plants).

No mention is made of plant additives (fertilizers), and without fish present these will be needed. Plants like the Wisteria are fast growing which means higher nutrient requirement, whereas Anubias and similar slow-growing plants might manage to some degree without supplementation.

Ironically, cyanobacteria (the green "slime") is caused by organics in the presence of light. There may well be organics of some type in the rock which are feeding the cyanobacteria. Personally I would not worry about the cyano at this stage, as once you establish the balance (light/nutrients) this may not be ongoing. However, you have very few plants to be using organics or light, and that is another issue with the balance. The light may be more than what these plants need in balance.

I'd like to know if you are adding any nutrients (fertilizers). And any data on the light, including duration daily.

The brown on the Anubias leaf...can it be easily removed with your fingertip? Or not?

First the brown on the leaf I hadn't tried anything; wasn't sure if it was becoming brittle and I'd break up the leaf or what, but will try and clear it with my finger...it does kinda come off if I scrub it with my finger.

I've been using Flourish Advance for the last 2 weeks to help get the plants going. I actually just finished the 50mL bottle and was going to switch to another "fertilizer", but hadn't researched enough to see what to use next/regularily. Suggestions would be welcome.

I have a timer on the light and it currently is on from 8-5:30. It's just the LED, but I figured with the low-light plants it'd be ok. It's techinically a 1.7w at 6500k (whatever that means).

I've only had it about a month, and most of the plants went in just 2 weeks ago.
 
6500K is the temperature of the light. The K is for Kelvin, so the globe is producing light with a 6500Kelvin rating. It basically has a similar light spectrum to natural sunlight and is the correct Kelvin rating for plants.

The 6500K globes are called daylight globes and give off a nice bright white light, whereas globes with a lower Kelvin rating (say 3500K) tend to look more yellow and are usually sold as warm lights.
 
Colin answered the Kelvin question. Scientifically-controlled studies have shown that aquarium plants do best with light in the 5000K to 7000K range. The lower the K number, the more red and less blue in the colour spectrum, so "warm" white; the higher the K number, the less red and more blue, so "cool" white. Marine tanks require high blue especially for corals, but freshwater plants do best closer to mid-day sun, which is as Colin noted, around 6000K. So your spectrum is fine.

As for the intensity, I've no direct experience with LED. Other members may be able to offer guidance. I'm still using T8 fluorescent tubes or on my smallest tanks CFL bulbs. Watts is no longer any guide to intensity unless one is comparing absolutely identical tubes/bulbs; watts is simply the energy required to light the tube/bulb/diode. I would suggest you stay with what you have and see what develops; here, I'll digress.

Light intensity (assuming the spectrum is acceptable) drives photosynthesis which is how plants grow. Some plants need more light than others, which is why they have varying growth rates and nutritional needs. Back to that balance again. As soon as any one factor is missing or insufficient, photosynthesis slows and may even cease altogether. So in your tank, the Wisteria is fast growing which means it needs brighter light than the moss or Anubias, which are both slower growing. But if the necessary nutrients are not available, the plant cannot use the light. Algae is less demanding, so it is always able to take advantage of any imbalance. Which is why finding or establishing and then maintaining the balance for each individual aquarium is important.

Duration is important, but it cannot "make up" too little intensity. The intensity is essential to drive photosynthesis, and plants will photosynthesize fully out if light and nutrients are available. But we can control this somewhat by lessening duration, to ensure we do not unbalance things if nutrients may be limited--as here they are, because primarily there is no plentiful source of ammonia/ammonium as there are with fish. [An example of this is my 20g quarantine tank for newly acquired fish, which is planted and runs permanently; when there are no fish, for months often, the plants manage to hang on, but barely; as soon as I add some new fish for a few weeks, the plants show positive response. This is the ammonia, and likely also CO2, created by the fish being present and being fed. Organics also increase too, more nutrients.] I have found that 8 hours is maximum for all of my tanks except one, which has 7 hours of tank lighting; any more and nuisance algae appears. But this balance is determined by the plant species, plant number, and fish load, for each tank. I have all low and moderate light requiring plants; higher light plants simply will not last. I also have floating plants in all my tanks, primarily for the benefit of the fish, and this obviously lessens the light intensity some. Wisteria for example will not grow in my tanks, due to light (too weak). If you can reduce the duration to 8 hours, it might improve things.

The other factor in balance is nutrition, and to answer your question about fertilizers...you want a comprehensive supplement that has basically everything plants require. Hydrogen, oxygen and carbon are never included, as these occur from other sources. I use Flourish Comprehensive Supplement for the Planted Aquarium and have for several years; another basically identical is Brightwell Aquatics' FlorinMulti. Not only do these have all necessary nutrients, the nutrients are in proportion to each other according to the needs of aquatic plants. Any one of these nutrients in excess can cause trouble, not only for plants, but algae can make use of such imbalances. Some nutrients in excess cause plants to shut down assimilation of certain other nutrients, so the balance among nutrients is important. In a high-tech method planted tank with mega light, diffused CO2, and daily nutrient dosing, you can over dose to some degree and then restore the balance with massive water changes. But in low-tech or more natural systems, any imbalance can wreak havoc very quickly.

I have seen Flourish Advance but not used it. First, it is not a nutrient supplement as is Flourish Comprehensive, and second, my tanks with plants have been running for many years and I am somewhat adverse to adding more chemicals when not really necessary. Every substance added to the water does get inside the fish, and "safe" is rather a subjective term manufacturers toss around. There is no doubt whatsoever than fish are affected by all chemicals and additives, so keeping them minimal is always better. You don't have fish to worry about here, and in a new set-up Flourish Advance might help. I wouldn't continue it though, it is expensive and as I say provides no nutrients itself.
 
Awesome, thank you. I'll get the Flourish you mentioned and use it going forward. I really only got the Advance because it was free with my plants purchase and also seemed like a good starting one.

Thank you so much for all your help and the details (including the answers to other posts of mine). It is very helpful and very much appreciated.

I had set-up the timer for those 9ish hours because that's when I'm at work generally. To drop it to 8 hours, is it ok to shut it off when I go to lunch or will the 4 hours on, 1 hour off, then 4 hours on again, mess up stuff?

Do you use the liquid fertilizer 2 times a week per the label instructions?
 
I'm also not familiar with that product but use Flourish Comprehensive. I use it at half the stated dose once a week. FWIW that's about 2ml per week in 180 litres of water. 50ml in 2 weeks seems like rather a lot.
 
I had set-up the timer for those 9ish hours because that's when I'm at work generally. To drop it to 8 hours, is it ok to shut it off when I go to lunch or will the 4 hours on, 1 hour off, then 4 hours on again, mess up stuff?

Having the tank lighting on for a few hours, then off for a couple, then on for another few hours, then off for the night, is usually referred to as the "siesta" approach. This is sometimes suggested when algae is troublesome. The thinking is that the natural CO2 is primarily used up during the first few hours, so the "siesta" period allows CO2 to rebuild. This is usually suggested as a means to allow for maximum plant growth without algae issues.

Normally I do not recommend this, because this dual-daylight period does affect fish negatively. But here you have no fish to worry about and it might help with algae control.

Do you use the liquid fertilizer 2 times a week per the label instructions?

This depends upon the individual aquarium. The more plants, or the faster-growing plants, the more nutrients are needed. But again light drives photosynthesis, so adding more fertilizer than what the plants can use can cause real algae issues; I have gone down that road. With the plants you have so far, one dose is sufficient. You can see how the plants respond--give them a couple weeks, as changes to lighting or fertilizers is not immediately obvious most of the time. The plants need time to adjust and respond accordingly.

If you will be doing water changes, using a conditioner, dose the fertilizer the following day; most conditioners neutralize some minerals that are in the fertilizer, but after 24 hours this should not be an issue. If you do not use a conditioner, and with no fish there really is no need for a dechlorinator, you can add the fertilizer after the water change. I never use conditioner in my planted quarantine tank when there are no fish, as the chlorine is actually a plant nutrient.
 
If you will be doing water changes, using a conditioner, dose the fertilizer the following day; most conditioners neutralize some minerals that are in the fertilizer, but after 24 hours this should not be an issue. If you do not use a conditioner, and with no fish there really is no need for a dechlorinator, you can add the fertilizer after the water change. I never use conditioner in my planted quarantine tank when there are no fish, as the chlorine is actually a plant nutrient.

Ah, I had read somewhere the Chlorine is still bad for plants and the conditioner is needed. It won't hurt I suppose; I got a Seachem Prime for it. I plan on 2-4 gallon water changes at least every other week.
 
Ah, I had read somewhere the Chlorine is still bad for plants and the conditioner is needed. It won't hurt I suppose; I got a Seachem Prime for it. I plan on 2-4 gallon water changes at least every other week.

I have never lost plants or snails to tap water chlorine, and if it is that minimal a change it won't hurt.
 
As there are shrimp in there it is prbably best to de-chlorinate.
 
Yes, agree. So use the FC the day after.
 

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