New Tank Cycled In Three Weeks!

[Gilby77]

Hello

Well my new tank has now cycled in exactly three weeks - see my previous thread linked below for how I set it up (it involved Bactinettes and household ammonia!)


http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=154233

Anyway, I did a massive water change on Wednesday night, as predicted the tank looked awful, green algae and brown wispy algae coming off plants and wood I have in the tank, so replaced 75% of the water and tried to clean up as much of the gunk as possible... It looks a lot better now but the brown wispy algae stuff is still there and last night (Thursday) I had to transfer my fish from my established tank to the new tank as I need to isolate a poorly albino barb (about to post on fish emergencies!).

The water stats are excellent, ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate 10-20. My pH is between 7.5 and 8.0 and the tank size is 76 gallons. Is the brown algae harmful to my fish?? Can anyone recommend something to get rid of it?

Unfortunately a number of plants have suffered during the fishless cycle and I have had to remove a couple (wish I hadn't planted the tank until the cycle had finished but I learn from mistakes!) so again is there anything I can feed the plants to help them along?

I checked the tank's stats again this morning after adding the fish (am a little paranoid ) and the ammonia is 0 and nitrite is 0 too

Any advice you can give me would be much appreciated!

Thanks

 

[dabaers]

Brown algae is most often seen in newly cyling/cyled tanks. Especially due to low light and high phosphates during an initial cycle.
It's a diatom, very few algae eaters will touch it.
The only ones I have found take care of it nicely and don't stop when they discover flake, are a bristlenose or a rubberlip/bullnose. They love the stuff.
It is not harmful to your fish
Eventually as your phosphates and nitrates settle down it will disappear on it's own as green algae takes over.

Hope that helps

Kath

 

[Bullrock74]

Especially due to low light

I agree and in my experience the brown algae will persist until sufficient lighting is added to the tank such that green algae take over.

 

[Gilby77]

Thank you for your responses, much appreciated!

I don't have a plec, was always a bit concerned about having one in my smaller tank, but now the bigger tank is set up I may purchase one - I do really like them!

I'm a bit concerned that you both think it is due to low light - my light is set to come on between 8 am and 12 noon and again from 8 pm until 11 pm and I'm sure it is a high enough wattage not to cause any problems.... mmm will keep an eye and see if the algae reduces now the tank is cycled!

Thanks again!

 

[skiltrip]

The greatest brown algae eaters i have seen are the Siamese Algae Eaters.. (NOT the chinese algae eaters). They aren't suckerfish, but related to the freshwater shark family i THINK. in any case, one of my tanks was covered in the stuff... had a pleco in there but he got lazy and decided he didn't want to clean up the brown stuff anymore. the pair of siamese algae eaters had it spotless, and i mean spotless in under a week.

i almost feel bad now cause they have no more brown algae to eat!

 

[Bullrock74]

I'm a bit concerned that you both think it is due to low light - my light is set to come on between 8 am and 12 noon and again from 8 pm until 11 pm and I'm sure it is a high enough wattage not to cause any problems.... mmm will keep an eye and see if the algae reduces now the tank is cycled!

Let me tell you my story. At first I had only one 30 watt flourescent bulb for my 95 gallon tank. I had brown algae everywhere. Then I bought two double bulb light fixtures. That allowed me to put four 30 watt flourescent bulbs above the tank. My brown algae disappeared and was replaced by slight amounts of green algae that the pleco easily took care of. This was about six months ago and I haven't seen the brown algae since.

Also, a month ago I bought another tank and after cycling, there was brown algae in it, but now it has been replaced by green algae.

Hopefully, you will see green algae begin to starve the brown very soon.

Why do you have the lights go out from noon to 8 pm? Is it to conserve electricity? This could also be stunting the growth of green algae and allow conditions that favor the brown algae.

 

[Gilby77]

I'm a bit concerned that you both think it is due to low light - my light is set to come on between 8 am and 12 noon and again from 8 pm until 11 pm and I'm sure it is a high enough wattage not to cause any problems.... mmm will keep an eye and see if the algae reduces now the tank is cycled!

Let me tell you my story. At first I had only one 30 watt flourescent bulb for my 95 gallon tank. I had brown algae everywhere. Then I bought two double bulb light fixtures. That allowed me to put four 30 watt flourescent bulbs above the tank. My brown algae disappeared and was replaced by slight amounts of green algae that the pleco easily took care of. This was about six months ago and I haven't seen the brown algae since.

Also, a month ago I bought another tank and after cycling, there was brown algae in it, but now it has been replaced by green algae.

Hopefully, you will see green algae begin to starve the brown very soon.

Why do you have the lights go out from noon to 8 pm? Is it to conserve electricity? This could also be stunting the growth of green algae and allow conditions that favor the brown algae.

Thank you all for responding! I went out and bought two plecs on Saturday and they have munched their way through nearly all the brown algae - there is hardly any left already!

With regard to lights, not sure why we (me and my fiance) decided to have the lights set for these specific times, just that the tank looks nice lit up first thing in the morning and in the evening while we are home, but again I will keep an eye on it and if it becomes detrimental then we can easily adjust the settings!