Brown Algae

[Fish called wonda]

Hi,

Really need some advice on how to control the build up of brown algae. We done a water change last Sunday night, cleaned the whole tank and all that was in it, including the gravel using a gravel cleaner. Within a day of cleaning everything the algae has returned and is building all the more. While I realise that algae is important within the tank, I dont want the build to get out of hand, and it doesnt look particularly pleasant. Any ideas??

Hope someone can help

Fish Called Wonda

xx

 

[charlie4486]

read the link below. it should explain everything.
http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/95...forms-of-Algae/

 

[gems2209]

hi there, has yout tank been set up long? when i first set mine up all was fine around a month after fish went in the brow algae started evern my plants and gravel were turning brown
went to lfs and they recommened waste control wich you use once a week, you double the first dose. within 2 weeks my tanks was looking fab again im not using it anymore and the problem hasn't come back, but i do have snails now, and they really do work they little butts off for me

dont know if that will help at all...good luck

 

[Fish called wonda]

hi there, has yout tank been set up long? when i first set mine up all was fine around a month after fish went in the brow algae started evern my plants and gravel were turning brown
went to lfs and they recommened waste control wich you use once a week, you double the first dose. within 2 weeks my tanks was looking fab again im not using it anymore and the problem hasn't come back, but i do have snails now, and they really do work they little butts off for me

dont know if that will help at all...good luck

Hi Gems2209,

Thanks for your reply. Same as you, my tank has been set up now for about a month and a half. All has been fine up until about a week ago. The algea is currently on the plants, the gravel and the glass. Luckily I got some good advice from a fish store not too far from me, and they have given me some sort of pad (Cant remember the name), 2 are needed and they fit inside of the filter and will apparently start to work immediatley and in about 2 weeks the tank should look as good as new. They have suggested that my problem is living in a particular area where I have hard water maily due to the 'victorian pipe works' which throws out my PH, Nitrite and Nitrate levels. May think about getting snails, but have been told that they breed rapidly?? Also would I need to count this in my fish allowance?

read the link below. it should explain everything.
[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/95...forms-of-Algae/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/95...forms-of-Algae/[/URL]

Thanks Charlie, will keep these for future reference as well.!!

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Hair algae is common in new tanks and will go away by itself eventually. The best thing to do is to keep up the water changes and remove as much as you can by hand. Cutting down the light period if possible will help. Also adding floating plants will help absorb excess nutrients in the water and will starve the algae of food.

Do you know what your water stats are (out of the tap and in the tank).
You need to know:
Ammonia (should be zero)
Nitrite (again zero)
Nitrate (ideally the lower the better).

If you have ammonia or nitrite in the tank then this will cause a lot of algae (as well as seriously damage your fish). Nitrate can cause algae blooms in theory but is not such a problem as long as it is under around 40ppm.

Excess Phosphate in the water can also cause algae problems. Adding phosphate removing media to your filter will help here but this does have to be changed regularly to stay effective.

If it was me I would just remove as much as you can by hand, get some nice floating plants and do weekly water changes. It might take a month or two but it will eventually go away.

Snails for the most part do not count as they tend to eat more waste then they produce (same for most shrimp).

 

[gems2209]

they dont breed anywhere near as fast as the pest snails, which usually hitch a ride in on plants. Apple snails breed once fully grown, they lay eggs just above the water line (look like little pink balls) so you will be able to remove them if you dont want anymore. On the advice of my lfs 2 or 3 snails make no difference to your stocking levels, they also told me that i would have a hard job to over stock on snails. They are also really cool to watch

 

[Fish called wonda]

Hair algae is common in new tanks and will go away by itself eventually. The best thing to do is to keep up the water changes and remove as much as you can by hand. Cutting down the light period if possible will help. Also adding floating plants will help absorb excess nutrients in the water and will starve the algae of food.

Do you know what your water stats are (out of the tap and in the tank).
You need to know:
Ammonia (should be zero)
Nitrite (again zero)
Nitrate (ideally the lower the better).

If you have ammonia or nitrite in the tank then this will cause a lot of algae (as well as seriously damage your fish). Nitrate can cause algae blooms in theory but is not such a problem as long as it is under around 40ppm.

Excess Phosphate in the water can also cause algae problems. Adding phosphate removing media to your filter will help here but this does have to be changed regularly to stay effective.

If it was me I would just remove as much as you can by hand, get some nice floating plants and do weekly water changes. It might take a month or two but it will eventually go away.


Hey Barney,

Thanks for your reply. Checked last night, Nitrite is 0 amonia is 0. We have found out from the local fish store that we have a lot of phosphate in our water, in the area that we live in. We have added phosphate removing pads, that fit in the filter so hopefully that should work.

How long have you had your tank/s going for??

Fish Called Wonda

xx



Snails for the most part do not count as they tend to eat more waste then they produce (same for most shrimp).

they dont breed anywhere near as fast as the pest snails, which usually hitch a ride in on plants. Apple snails breed once fully grown, they lay eggs just above the water line (look like little pink balls) so you will be able to remove them if you dont want anymore. On the advice of my lfs 2 or 3 snails make no difference to your stocking levels, they also told me that i would have a hard job to over stock on snails. They are also really cool to watch

Thats great, thanks for the quick reply. Need to convince my partner now, that getting snails would be a great plan!! We were worried that they would overtake the tank!! Thats really cool, think I will be out this weekend buying some snails. xx

 

[Squid]

Brown alage that looks like it is almost a powdery clump covering across plants and rocks etc, is often diatoms. This is a brown form of algae that is experienced by most freshwater tanks in the early stages. Mine inclusive. You may find that one day it dissapears as quickly as it came. Alternatively, I put in some otos which absolutely love the stuff and it dissapeared in 24-48 hours, but they can be fragile things and prefer a more mature tank. If you do get them, make sure they have been well aclimatised at the LFS (your new term) and they have porky bellies. The porky ones are the healthy ones when it comes to otos.

I did read somewhere, oddly enought, that with diatoms you can even increase the hours that the lighting is on to discourage this algae. I will try to find where that is. Perhaps don't try that until i find it though

One final thing. If you respond to the email you would have received after you joined, it will then remove 'validating' from your profiles and give you full access to the forum. If you don't see the email, then check your spam filter.

aha.. it is actually the link that charlie linked earlier on. Another good old The-Wolf production; see the diatoms section here.

Cheers
Squid

 

[Bullrock74]

Brown algae can be caused by not enough light. In my experience, most aquariums come with sub-standard lighting. Low light levels encourage the growth of the brown algae while higher light levels encourage the growth of potentially beneficial green algae. How many watts of light do you have and how big is your tank. I had brown algae in my tank when my watts/gallon was less than 1.