Air Purifier Causing Brown Algae

[Aurora]

I have a large room air purifier that puts ions in the air and I have noticed that when I run it on high within 24 hours I start to see a brown algae outbreak in my tank. It took me awhile to figure this out. I just couldn't find the cause of the brown algae starting and then stopping as suddenly. Sunday night I turned the purifier ions up and sure enough last night the brown algae started to rear it's ugly head again. This is the third time I've purposely done this to see what would happen so I'm sure it's not just a freak coincidence. So if you are running room air purifiers that has the ions feature and having alot of brown algae problems this may be a large part of the problem.

 

[BigIan]

what exactly does an air purifyer do?
(for give me i`m english and just open a window)

 

[PaPeRo]

An ionizer acts as a magnet so that dust particles etc get stuck on the ionizing plate due to electric charging. An ionizer does release ozone into the air but I can't imagine why that would relate to diatoms (brown algae).

 

[Kevstir]

get some ottos m8 they love the brown algae

edit: lol just noticed in your sig you have 1 already doh!

 

[Bignose]

I'd be really, REALLY interested if someone else would repeat this experiment. Especially if some control would be used, like two identical tanks, same size and stocking, same live or plastic plants, same filters, same water change schedule, etc. And have one in a bedroom with the air purifier going and one without.

Otherwise, this just seems really odd to me. There is one possibility, though this is all speculation to me. Diatoms primarily use a lot of silicon to make their cell walls, silicon is typically a limiting agent for their growth. Diatoms do use silica, which is silicon dioxide, easier than any other form of silicon. Maybe, just maybe, the ozone created from the ionizing air purifier is able to convert more of the silicon dissolved in the water into silica which the diatoms use more readily.

I probably cannot stress enough that all of the above paragraph was just a guess, and I in know way know any of the above to be true. That is why I'd love to see an experiment or three to confirm this.