Please see my video. I have a ridiculous amount of brown diatom algae in my aquarium. I have 1ppm of phosphate in my tap water. I donāt have live plants or plant-growing appropriate lighting. Light is on no more than 8 hours per day. How can I combat this dreadful algae? See video below. Thank you. Fran
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Ah. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think it's diatom algae. Doesn't look like it, and diatom algae brushes off easily. Very soft, a lighter brown, and can form a sort of carpet layer even, but is easily sucked up with a gravel vac and washed off of fake plants.
This stuff, let me guess, is really hard to remove, even if you take a fake plant out and scrub at it?
I don't know the name of it, but it looks very much like a nightmare algae that I helped try to eradicate from my dad's tank, that did have live plants, but only cryptocorynes. It stuck to everything so hard, it was almost impossible to remove. Tried several times to remove every leaf that had it, remove any decor that had it and scrub it off, but it always came back with a vengeance. I'm afraid to say that it didn't go away until we did a complete tank tear down.
Cryptocorynes cut right down until only roots left, substrate removed and cleaned, and lots of uncleanable decor thrown away and replaced.
If it's the same thing, then I'd do the following:
Fake plants you can remove and try a bleach clean and scrubbing them clean. You'd need to look up the dilution recommended for bleaching tank ornaments since I don't know it offhand, but it can be used with live plants, so would be fine for fake I'd imagine. After scrubbing as much off as you can and doing a bleach soak, to be safe, rinse really well and then soak the plant in a triple dose of declorinator, then rinse some more and allow to air dry completely before replacing in the tank. If it's not all gone, I'd throw them and replace.
Wood and stone is a different matter and can't be bleached but can be scrubbed as much as you can and baked in a hot oven to try to kill it off.
Scrape down the inside of the tank walls with a Stanley blade, to remove any traces that might be clinging to the glass, right before doing a large water change/gravel vac to remove as much of the free-floating yuk as possible.
Replace clean decor and hope that it worked!
Then I'd add a bunch of live plants. Both because I'm a planted tank nut, and think every tank looks incomplete without some, but also because some fast-growing live plants (the crypts in our case are pretty slow growing so not as helpful) can outcompete the algae for nutrients, if the balance is right. Make sure you're not overfeeding. Some floating plants can also provide some shade. This algae seems to thrive when it has more lighting.
This stuff, let me guess, is really hard to remove, even if you take a fake plant out and scrub at it?
I don't know the name of it, but it looks very much like a nightmare algae that I helped try to eradicate from my dad's tank, that did have live plants, but only cryptocorynes. It stuck to everything so hard, it was almost impossible to remove. Tried several times to remove every leaf that had it, remove any decor that had it and scrub it off, but it always came back with a vengeance. I'm afraid to say that it didn't go away until we did a complete tank tear down.
Cryptocorynes cut right down until only roots left, substrate removed and cleaned, and lots of uncleanable decor thrown away and replaced.If it's the same thing, then I'd do the following:
Fake plants you can remove and try a bleach clean and scrubbing them clean. You'd need to look up the dilution recommended for bleaching tank ornaments since I don't know it offhand, but it can be used with live plants, so would be fine for fake I'd imagine. After scrubbing as much off as you can and doing a bleach soak, to be safe, rinse really well and then soak the plant in a triple dose of declorinator, then rinse some more and allow to air dry completely before replacing in the tank. If it's not all gone, I'd throw them and replace.
Wood and stone is a different matter and can't be bleached but can be scrubbed as much as you can and baked in a hot oven to try to kill it off.
Scrape down the inside of the tank walls with a Stanley blade, to remove any traces that might be clinging to the glass, right before doing a large water change/gravel vac to remove as much of the free-floating yuk as possible.
Replace clean decor and hope that it worked!
Then I'd add a bunch of live plants. Both because I'm a planted tank nut, and think every tank looks incomplete without some, but also because some fast-growing live plants (the crypts in our case are pretty slow growing so not as helpful) can outcompete the algae for nutrients, if the balance is right. Make sure you're not overfeeding. Some floating plants can also provide some shade. This algae seems to thrive when it has more lighting.
Forgot to say - gorgeous loaches! The botiid loaches are some of my favourites, I just don't have a big enough/suitable set up for them at the moment. Had two yoyos that I inherited and loved them, really want to get a proper group size in a large tank and enjoy them! So I really liked seeing yours The little cameo one made when you looked through the wood and she was peeking out was adorable.
The little cameo one made when you looked through the wood and she was peeking out was adorable. 
It isn't diatoms. It could be blue green algae (Cyanobacter bacteria). If it wipes off easily and smells musty, it is blue green algae.
If you don't have live plants then you only need the light on for a few hours in the evening when you are there to watch the fish. if you have light and no live plants, algae or blue green algae will grow instead.
If you don't have live plants then you only need the light on for a few hours in the evening when you are there to watch the fish. if you have light and no live plants, algae or blue green algae will grow instead.
Thank you for your ideas with the algae. And yes as I was panning the tank, I saw the clown through the hole of the decor and had to leave the video there for a moment. I believe that clown is a male. He is my second oldest inhabitant, only to the silver dollar of 13 years. The yo-yos are a good size too and they have been with me for four years. They were skinny runts when I got them. They are beautiful and a fav of mine also. That aquarium is an 120 gallon.Forgot to say - gorgeous loaches! The botiid loaches are some of my favourites, I just don't have a big enough/suitable set up for them at the moment. Had two yoyos that I inherited and loved them, really want to get a proper group size in a large tank and enjoy them! So I really liked seeing yours
It seemed to have started off smooth then multiplied into a deeper coatingā¦.This is my second set of fake plants.
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