Brown Algea

[Ron]

Oh, god I haven't been on here for forever!!! Anyways, a couple of quetions. I have a 15 gallon brackish tank for my puffer. While over teh past week There's been ugly brown algea growing on teh sides of my tank. Is it hurting anything? Will it go away? Should I remove it? What can I buy that is safe for my puffer to remove it, if thats what I shoudl do? Thanks,
Ron

 

[Flippin'thing bit me eye]

Brown algae is often caused by a lack of light, try keeping the tank lights on for slightly longer.

 

[Ron]

Ok, thanks! My lfs guy told me it was a sign that my tank was biologically ballanced, and that it was extremely helpful to teh puffer. That it 'ate the puff's waste and gives off oxygen' his exact words. He also said that in a month it would switch to green algea and thats even better. Typical....anyways, thanks for settin me straight. I moved him to a new, 30 gallon tank so now I don't have the problem and he has much more room!!! Thanks,
Ron

 

[allstarme]

How long should you typically keep the light on during the day?

 

[Ron]

I keep mine on for 13 hours. But when teh algea just started to form like 3 weeks ago, i didn't have the light on for that long.
Ron

 

[Flippin'thing bit me eye]

Crikey! how long's a piece of string.
If you have live plants then it varies, it's been a long time since I've had tanks with live plants as for a long time I've kept cichlids exclusively and had fake plants.
If you use fake plants and the tank recieves a decent amount of daylight then you may only want to put the lights on for a few hours in the evening.
In high summer I only put the lights on for a couple of hours at night as the room gets a lot of natural light and I increase the time as the days get shorter.

 

[Ron]

The tanks are in my basement so they get about a 1/2 of indirect light each day. Yeah, and I do have live plants too. So it all works out.
Ron