Brown Algae Argh!

[QuotheRaven]

I bought some elodea some 3 months ago and it seemingly had some brown algae on it and now my catfish tank is overthrown by it and will not go... it kills of any plants that touch the water and makes the water awfully brown.... It's a freshwater tank and pretty much has Bottom dwellers and a anostomus anostomus but nothing eats it and no amount of cleaning fixes.... any solutions? It's a 32 gallon tank 32 inches wide....8 cories, 1 Black Lancer ( will be moved but is tiny at the moment) 1 spiny eel, 4 Kuhlii Loaches, 5 USD Cats, 1 spotted Raphael, 1 Cuckoo Catfish, 1 Anostomus Anostomus, 2 hillstream loaches not sure what type exactly...2 Siamese bumblebee catfish. My water stat's are fine although I do not know the exact PH and Nitrate....and my cories just breed like crazy and just had hundreds of cory eggs in the tank last night but eaten ....

So any help?

 

[TammyLiz]

Hi I was just scrolling through checking for posts without answers because I was feeling sorry for myself since nobody answered my topic Thought I'd try to help someone out and yours looked like something I could help with.

But to start out with, what type of brown algae are you talking about? Is it kind of powdery and a thin coat over everything or is it clumpy, soft and stringy? Or is it like little spikes sticking off of things and hard to pull off?

How often do you do water changes and how much?

What type of light do you have and how many hours a day is it turned on?

Have you tested your water for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate recently? You said fine but it would be good to know numbers, pH and nitrate can help give a good indicator of how the tank is doing....do you have a test kit?

What type of filter do you have? Is there much current in the tank? Dead spots?

Do you currently have any plants in the tank?

 

[my fat fish]

i have found that a uv steroliser (how ever its spelt) helps alot with keeping algae in cheak but yeah it also depends on what sort of algae

 

[QuotheRaven]

it's like a soft whispy cottony algae when it grows in one spot for awhile BUT it is kind of powdery. Large current in the tank with a internal filter, cannot have plants the algae tears it apart within 2 weeks....not exactly sure about the light but it's on for about 8 hours a day

 

[TammyLiz]

Still trying to figure out what type it is. How long is it? Can you get a picture?

I have never heard of algae actually ripping plants up. I doubt that is what is happening, but it can shade the plant and keep it from getting enough light, killing it that way.

If you don't know what type of light you have it probably isn't much and might be causing your problem with the plants dying (from lack of light).

Have you been able to test your water? Poor water quality can make algae issues worse. Ammonia, in particular, makes algae much worse. If you could get some plants to actually grow in there it would help your problem since they would be taking up nutrients, but it sounds like you might need more light for that.

Another way to get rid of excess nutrients is to do extra tank maintenance. Extra water changes and gravel vacuuming. I wonder, when the plants originally died did you leave them in there to rot? That would have polluted the tank and could have contributed to the algae issues.

If you're wanting plants, maybe look into some other lighting options, and learn about how to keep them healthy, and take that approach.

If you're not wanting plants, then just clean clean clean.

But that is all assuming the algae is being caused by excess nutrients in the tank, which is likely.

 

[fishlette]

some plants, especially elodea and some like it, can really mess with your water. if you dont have great lighting then your plants dont do so well therefore fouling your water. if you want live plants, even low light ones, its a good idea to have a good light and some plant food if you want them to do really well over the long term.

cant remember wether it nitrites or nitrates but one of the will mess with the biological components and create algal blooms. a full test with stats would be helpful there.

too much sunlight is also another issue if your tank is near a window or other natural light source.

ive never had an issue with algae as i have always had snails and bristlenose catfish (accept in my marine tank that is cycling and has lazy trochus snails ). never even a tiny bit of algae here or there. the closest i came was in my convict tank as when i first got them i thought i couldnt even put snails or bn's in. i started to get like a light brown algae film form over everything in the tank and then it started growing on the glass like grass. wasnt a dead spot cause you could see the algae flowing in the current. about a week after this started i put in two mystery snails and a pair of BN. the tank has been spotless ever since. might i suggest you try adding some snails or BN or something else that eats algae??

i would do a decent water change and clean your tank up nice then add some more critters

hope this helps

 

[Danno]

Invest in a phosphate test kit and phosphate removal media. That could be the entire reason.

 

[dthoffsett]

Invest in a phosphate test kit and phosphate removal media. That could be the entire reason.

That's very possible, I had some big problems with brown algae, and discovered my phosphate was really high. The addition of a phosphate mat to my filter solved everything.

 

[Dave Spencer]

It`s a tad confusing as to what is really going on here. You say that plants are dying quickly and the water is turning brown. Is Egeria (Elodea) densa the only plant that you have?

Egeria is essentially a cold water plant and generally will not thrive in a tropical set up. I had some that went leggy and all the lower leaves went brown and died. I am not sure what is causing the water to go brown, but the best way for you to beat algae is to keep cleaning it off as much as you can and start a regime of regular water changes. You need to hassle it as much as you can.

It is hard to give more specific advice without a positive ID (any pics?), but you may be getting brown diatoms on all your hardware and plants. Is all the algae brown? If it is , then you could try a small group of Otos.

UV sterilisers will clear your water of a green algae bloom, but will not touch any of the other types.

Dave.