Brown Dust Algae

[blackers92]

Hi Guys

I have some mild brown dust algae that is on my amazon swords, anubias and baby tears. It is starting to become quite unsightly. I have searched the net and it usually says that it occurs in "new tanks" and to just leave it. The problem is that my tank has been running for over 14 months. I occasionally get a small build up on the glass near the substrate which is easily wiped away during my weekly water change.

My tank is 37 Gallons
48 Watts of T5 HO
Daily Dosing of Excel
Weekly Dosing of Flourish
Fluorite Substrate
26 Degree Water
pH of about 7

If more stats are needed I can do my GH / KH and Nitrates tomorrow

Another suggestion is to plant the tank heavier, but I am going to remove my old bogwood and add a piece of goldvine with java fern and anubias attached to it, obviously these are very slow growing plants could this further more contribute to my issue?

I cannot add anymore fish to my tank such as an otto because it is already pretty full. I have a SAE but he seems to have become lazy in his age and prefer to eat anything but algae as does my BN

Cheers

Adam

 

[ian]

have you got any pics Blackers?

 

[blackers92]

Sorry about the late reply, I had a long shift and had to use my pathetic iphone 3gs camera

It may not look brown but it definitely is,

on my anubias
http/img844.imageshack.us/i/photo2je.jpg/

on my java fern
http/img844.imageshack.us/i/photo3in.jpg/

probably the easiest to view it, could anyone possibly ID this? apparently it is "Baby Tears"
http/img189.imageshack.us/i/photo4an.jpg/

and this is the algae build up on my actual glass (and my hoplo, it loves the camera)
http/img824.imageshack.us/i/photo5sj.jpg/


I have read that you should just leave brown algae to build up because it will eventually die. But it has been a few weeks now, it's so persistant

 

[ian]

yeah, thats deffo Diatoms. Small ammonia spikes will cause this. Up the water changes, you can manually remove, give the filter a good clean. It will go on it's own, but like you say it is unsightly. Spot dosing easycarbo will also get rid of this as will Otos.