brown algae

[teknikz]

my tank is developing brown algae.....even tho it is not in direct sunlight.......why is it brown and not green and why isnt the treatment im using not making it go away

Tek

 

[wetwetwet]

Hi teknikz,

I was just saying in another thread everyone seems to have an algae problem at some time....

Personally I don't mind a bit of algae and leave it on the back and side glass.

Have you tested for nitrate and maybe phosphate?

Any live plants? - these can help

I've never heard very good reports about algae remedies (though I've never tried any) - they don't address the cause of the problem - if anything (imo) can make things worse as they kill of the algae which adds to the biological load in the tank which inturn creates more nitrate which can feed the algae (don't know how acruate that is but it kind of makes sense to me )

Have you any tank inhabitants to help keep algae down? (though I don't think theres much that will keep brown algae in check )

 

[skiltrip]

I recently had some brown algae developing on a piece of driftwood that I had in my tank. Some people's advice was to boil the driftwood for a bit to kill the algae. That is what i did.

Seems it happens in low light conditions actually. So an increase in light would actually help get rid of it (a brighter bulb for example).

I got rid of it, cause I didn't want it to spread. My tank is crystal clear, and I want to keep it that way!

Do a search on here for "brown algae". you'll find a bunch of old posts with useful information in them.

- Kip

 

[Jamnog]

im going to shock some people ...well no i prolly wont as what i have to say is something that many people will know is something im a gr8 beliver in. everything you are about to read is purely my opinion and not based on scientific fact or reason or anything... infact if you want to think like that its all complete nonsence as well but its what i belive read at your perill and dissagree at will. alge is a bad thing in terms of tank looks but irradicateing it is a bad thing as its part of the bio diversity of the tank if your tank has a green tinge then that means that there is abundant plant food in your tank good why not keep plants so they can eat the plant food (plant food prolly being a mix of nitrates and other stuff). some alge needs oxigen and some need co2 perhaps the balance is wrong in your tank thus leaving an opening for a particular type of alge on the inside of your tank. fish eat alge free floating snails eat alge off rocks and the floor and the tank walls. alge eaters eat alge off surfaces and such. from that you might assume that alge is a food sorce that will keep your fish happy complimenting its diet with some kind of balance. different kinds of alge can get out of check quickly but they are only redressing the imballance that gives it such allot of food. a new tank will have a bloom of alge and people who kill off that bloom completely will find that the imbalance that was encouraging this bloom in alge has not gone away. the reason it has not gone away? well wet wet wet put it best its cumulative better to leave some alge for this reason i dont clean the side walls of alge. blanket weed or beard agle might come along to replace it. i recomend buying a load of plants some snails (oh and i dont care if they reproduce if they have the alge to eat they will reproduce to cover the alge (sybiotic relationship) cant people understand that?) oh and you may have to buy more plants if the snails eat them a bit big deal. the treatments are all just made by the chem comapnys to make money out of you. like snail killer in my opinion thease are not environmentally sound products not good for your tank and no one should sell or use them (im very opinionated ). as far as most natural uninvited guests your tank may get the ones you need to worry about are parasites and viral/bacterial diseases and i think alge and snails help to keep the water healthy and a less inviting place for the parasites to live in. also the alge may actually improve your fishes health to the point where they are more resistant to thease diseases. so thats my diatribe on alge and snails and some other stuff im very upmyself about. i would more than welcome some input from those who wish to dissagree. like i said up there i might be wrong about some of thise and would welcome someone who could put me right on anything ive said. i think you should say something if you dissagree as this is a discusion forum after all.
8) jamnog out

 

[CFC]

I dont know of any fish that will eat brown algea (although some crustaceans might) and as mentioned before it is usually caused by a lack of light.
You could try leaving the lights on for a while longer,although this may cause a increase in green algea but if you have algea eaters this will be taken care of.But it would be best to try and remove as much as possible by hand first,to do this just stir it up and do a big water change.

I have personally had some very bad experience with anti algea treatments.My largest tank has suffered from black hair algea from day one and since the majority of its inhabitants are predators i cant place SAE of ottos in there to keep it down,to try and control it i tried some anti algea treatment and within 24 hours of adding it the whole tank came down with a serious case of velvet and i lost a couple of hundred quids worth of fish,the tank had never had any disease before and there had been no new stock added for a few months.

One of the other main causes of algea and one that is often over looked is Phosphates,if you can get yourself a phosphate testing kit and see how high the levels in both the tank and your tapwater are.If they are on the high side you may want to try and lower them by either using RO water of adding a phosphate consuming pouch (phoszorb ect) to your filtration system.

 

[pondfreak4365]

I always thought that scrubbing algae off the glass was a part of aquarium keeping

I also get the brown algae on my plastic plants, I just soak them in bleach water and rinse well with the last soak in de-chlor. Is something wrong with my thinking? I mean, brown algae or good bacteria is a good thing for the bio wheel, why not for the tank too?

 

[teknikz]

cheers guys......u given me lots of info that i didnt know about

i just pulled out some of the gravel that had a fair bit of the brown stuff on and ive just scrubbed my rainbow rock coz thats where most of it was...then i bouiled it and the algae was turning green

ive got 3 live plants in the tank but im not sure whether 2 of them are doin too well....tips are goin a bit brown coloured

i think im gonna buy a brighter bulb 2moro n see if that works

Tek

 

[Tanked]

I've been battling the brown algae myself with the 2 small tanks in the bedroom. I would scrub the tank and have all of the algae back within 12 hours. I have since started opening the shudders so that some natural light gets into the room and the brown algae is subsiding. My plants are looking healthier and the fish seem much happier as the water is clearing up some - it was a nasty brown color and hard to see into.

 

[snotirl]

I have that problem in my cold water tank it grows the minute i clean it off i think u can buy some stuff to get rid of it!

 

[Dogsby]

My borwn algae went away one day without me doing anything (no knowingly anyway) I wonder if it will come back?

Shawn

 

[wetwetwet]

im going to shock some people ...well no i prolly wont as what i have to say is something that many people will know is something im a gr8 beliver in. everything you are about to read is purely my opinion and not based on scientific fact or reason or anything... infact if you want to think like that its all complete nonsence as well but its what i belive read at your perill and dissagree at will. alge is a bad thing in terms of tank looks but irradicateing it is a bad thing as its part of the bio diversity of the tank if your tank has a green tinge then that means that there is abundant plant food in your tank good why not keep plants so they can eat the plant food (plant food prolly being a mix of nitrates and other stuff). some alge needs oxigen and some need co2 perhaps the balance is wrong in your tank thus leaving an opening for a particular type of alge on the inside of your tank. fish eat alge free floating snails eat alge off rocks and the floor and the tank walls. alge eaters eat alge off surfaces and such. from that you might assume that alge is a food sorce that will keep your fish happy complimenting its diet with some kind of balance. different kinds of alge can get out of check quickly but they are only redressing the imballance that gives it such allot of food. a new tank will have a bloom of alge and people who kill off that bloom completely will find that the imbalance that was encouraging this bloom in alge has not gone away. the reason it has not gone away? well wet wet wet put it best its cumulative better to leave some alge for this reason i dont clean the side walls of alge. blanket weed or beard agle might come along to replace it. i recomend buying a load of plants some snails (oh and i dont care if they reproduce if they have the alge to eat they will reproduce to cover the alge (sybiotic relationship) cant people understand that?) oh and you may have to buy more plants if the snails eat them a bit big deal. the treatments are all just made by the chem comapnys to make money out of you. like snail killer in my opinion thease are not environmentally sound products not good for your tank and no one should sell or use them (im very opinionated ). as far as most natural uninvited guests your tank may get the ones you need to worry about are parasites and viral/bacterial diseases and i think alge and snails help to keep the water healthy and a less inviting place for the parasites to live in. also the alge may actually improve your fishes health to the point where they are more resistant to thease diseases. so thats my diatribe on alge and snails and some other stuff im very upmyself about. i would more than welcome some input from those who wish to dissagree. like i said up there i might be wrong about some of thise and would welcome someone who could put me right on anything ive said. i think you should say something if you dissagree as this is a discusion forum after all.
8) jamnog out

m8 this does make sense - but is a bit hard on the eyes 8)

good rant though

 

[Tanked]

im going to shock some people ...well no i prolly wont as what i have to say is something that many people will know is something im a gr8 beliver in. everything you are about to read is purely my opinion and not based on scientific fact or reason or anything... infact if you want to think like that its all complete nonsence as well but its what i belive read at your perill and dissagree at will. alge is a bad thing in terms of tank looks but irradicateing it is a bad thing as its part of the bio diversity of the tank if your tank has a green tinge then that means that there is abundant plant food in your tank good why not keep plants so they can eat the plant food (plant food prolly being a mix of nitrates and other stuff). some alge needs oxigen and some need co2 perhaps the balance is wrong in your tank thus leaving an opening for a particular type of alge on the inside of your tank. fish eat alge free floating snails eat alge off rocks and the floor and the tank walls. alge eaters eat alge off surfaces and such. from that you might assume that alge is a food sorce that will keep your fish happy complimenting its diet with some kind of balance. different kinds of alge can get out of check quickly but they are only redressing the imballance that gives it such allot of food. a new tank will have a bloom of alge and people who kill off that bloom completely will find that the imbalance that was encouraging this bloom in alge has not gone away. the reason it has not gone away? well wet wet wet put it best its cumulative better to leave some alge for this reason i dont clean the side walls of alge. blanket weed or beard agle might come along to replace it. i recomend buying a load of plants some snails (oh and i dont care if they reproduce if they have the alge to eat they will reproduce to cover the alge (sybiotic relationship) cant people understand that?) oh and you may have to buy more plants if the snails eat them a bit big deal. the treatments are all just made by the chem comapnys to make money out of you. like snail killer in my opinion thease are not environmentally sound products not good for your tank and no one should sell or use them (im very opinionated ). as far as most natural uninvited guests your tank may get the ones you need to worry about are parasites and viral/bacterial diseases and i think alge and snails help to keep the water healthy and a less inviting place for the parasites to live in. also the alge may actually improve your fishes health to the point where they are more resistant to thease diseases. so thats my diatribe on alge and snails and some other stuff im very upmyself about. i would more than welcome some input from those who wish to dissagree. like i said up there i might be wrong about some of thise and would welcome someone who could put me right on anything ive said. i think you should say something if you dissagree as this is a discusion forum after all.
8) jamnog out

m8 this does make sense - but is a bit hard on the eyes 8)

good rant though

this definatly makes sense jam, the problem with brown algae is it will deplete the oxygen levels in the tank. there are many things that will cause this too, such as low oxygen levels to begin with, not enough light etc. mine was caused by to little light as I have bubble wands in all my tanks and the water is turned between 5 and 10times per hour depending on which tank.

 

[teknikz]

well i checked my bulb today n it was an AQUA GLO

so ive took it out n put a power glow in instead.....n ive bought a rather large pleco....he's about 4 times bigger than my old 1....so hopefully it will subside soon......even tho ive been treating it for 8 days with algae remover.....n that hasnt worked

Tek

 

[HooDude]

Hey all,

Well firstoff i'd like to say Jamong, paragraphs are a very handy literary device.

Secondly, IME brown algae is the easiest stuff in the world to control. It takes like one or two passes with an alge scrubber to remove it, it isn't like green algae where you scrub your arse off trying to remove it, and it provides good food for your system. Don't worry about it.

I'd say just clean the stuff that really bothers you and forget about the rest. Its not like beard algae or blanket algae. Those are really bad, and I have had them.

 

[Jamnog]

thanks guys im not very gramatical tho
as for the plec wonderfull idea to get one of those they are alge monsters it should help.