Problem With My Brackish Tank

[AiKakashi]

Okies. first the basics.

1. My tank is 26 gals.
2. kept at about 71-74 degrees
3. Brackish water- 1 tablespoon per ever 5 gallons of water
4. contains fake plants, pebbles, and large rocks from Lake Superior in Michigan.
5. Contains only 1 green puffer fish
6. water changed ever 1 to 2 weeks. (Usually 30%, salt added)
7. The tank came with a white halogen light
8. all levels seem to be ok with the tank except the Nitrate which is just at stress level.
9. The Puffer seems to be uneffected by both my problem, and the Nitrate level. He eats extremely well, he swims boyantly, his body shows no signs of stress or illness.
10. I feed frozen brineshrimp (After thawed of course) 1x a day (Use to be 2x but I cut it back when I started having these tank problems.) I tried bloodworms, which he likes alright, but he enjoys the brine shrimp more.
11. I change my filter insert once every 3 weeks to 1 month.

Here's my problem...

My tank is constantly filled with this brownish-rusty color "stuff". its a film that grows over the rocks, (Fake) plants and the walls of the tank.

(Here's a pic)

That is the second time it happened. Both the aquarium store near me, and another website told me it was "brown Algae".

One advice site told me to do a 25 to 30% water change, wash down the rocks, plants and such since the brown Algae just wipes off, then add a tablespoon of salt.

That worked for like a week, but the algae came back. The Aquarium store told me to do another water change, treat the water for 5 days with these tablet medicines called Maracyn then do another water change. But when I asked a Brackish water puffer know-all about Maracyn they said not to use it. (Something about puffers not having a natural slimey skin layer that could be effected by Maracyn.)

So I did another water change, only this time I changed 50% of the water, scrubbing off all of the pebbles, the large rocks and the fake plants, and the walls of the tank so that there was no brown algae left. That worked for a week or so. but it came back.

So Against the advice, I treated the water with the Maracyn the aquarium store gave me, and that didn't seem to do anything at all.

So another puffer knowall told me that I was cleaning my tank too often, that it was too clean, the brown algae is caused by excess nutrients in the water, and that brackish puffers like a certian amount of ick. If the water is too clean, this could happen.

So they told me that I should not do anymore water changes for now, just add water if the water level starts to evaporate. Try not to add more salt for the time being, and the brown algae will eventually burn itself out. (In otherwords just go away on its own.)

Its been about 3 weeks to a month since the last water change, and the algae seems to be spreading rather than getting better.

I'm at my wits end. Sure the fish doesn't seem to be stressed at all by it, showing no signs of illness, but still, I like a clean tank that I can see through.

What should I do? Clean the tank more often? Try the Maracyn treatment again? Let it go for a while longer and see if it does start to burn out? I need advice PULEEZE!!!!!!

 

[penguinpimp1990]

you didnt mention a hydrometer or refractometer, you need one of the either listed if you wish for a brackish tank. But anyways too many water changes of large amounts is stressful for the fish as pH will flucuate and stuff, but for the algae, brown algae grows in everyones brackish tank but to get rid of it use an algae magnet for the glass and the best removal of it from decor is leaving it in boiling water for about 5 minutes. and algae wont effect your fish in any way, excess nitrates wont help either.

 

[nmonks]

As "penguinpimp1990" has mentioned, you really should invest in a hydrometer. While you can estimate specific gravity up to a point, there's a large margin of error because a box of salt, once opened, absorbs moisture. So, although 35 grammes of "fresh" sea salt is needed per litre of water to make normal (full strength) sea water, you will actually need to add slightly more salt than this once the box has been open a while.

If you go visit my web page you can download a program called Brack Calc that converts between salinity, specific gravity, and "strength" relative to normal sea water. For a figure-8 puffer, you're aiming for an SG of about 1.005, which is equivalent to a salinity of 7 grammes of salt per litre, or about 1/5th the strength of normal sea water.

I have yet to see a brackish water tank that didn't have some algae in it. The best you can do over the short term is manually remove it. Assuming you have an external canister filter, you can simply remove the rocks and gravel as required and wash them using hot water. An algae scraper will take care of the glass.

The relationship between high nitrates and algal blooms is certainly true in the wild, but the case of this being the case in aquaria is not certain. Some tanks have high nitrates and no algae, whereas others have low nitrates but lots of algae. A better generalisation is that aquaria with high nitrates, few/no plants, and poor lighting tend to have lots of algae. Brown algae prosper in low light conditions, so one solution is to try and grow green algae, which is much more attractive, by doubling or trebling the lighting in your aquarium.

Contrary to popular belief, there are brackish water algae eaters, but whether or not they mix safely with puffers is more of a question. Violet gobies, killifish, and mollies will all eat algae in significant amounts, violet gobies in particular being among the few species that take thread algae. Killis and mollies prefer green algae and won't eat brown algae. There are brackish water snails and shrimps, too, but again, mixing these with puffers may be a bad idea.

Another thing to have in mind is that if you have lots of plants, you will have less algae. While even heavily planted tanks can get thread algae, brown algae and green algae tend to be absent from such aquaria. Thread algae is ugly but at least it is easy enough to remove (by cutting away infected leaves). At a specific gravity of 1.005, your selection of suitable plants includes Java fern, Crinum calamistratum, Cryptocoryne ciliata, and Bacopa monnieri. You can read up on these plants in the Brackish FAQ. These species naturally occur regularly in brackish water and should do well. Note that some need very intense lighting to do well.

Adding chemicals to the water to solve algae problems is pointless. It's about as useful as stomping on ants in the hope that doing so will kill off an ant nest. You need to fix the problem, not the symptom.

Brown algae will not go away by itself. There are some situations where newly set up marine aquaria get a diatom bloom (diatoms being brown algae), and in these cases things do settle down. In the general situation, which is what you have, brown algae will simply keep on growing. Basically, unless there are other factors (like live plants) at work, shining a light into a tank of nutrient-rich water will cause algae to grow.

So, to summarise:

(1) Brown algae is persistant
(2) Adding chemicals is pointless
(3) Reducing nitrates through water changes can help, but there are no guarantees
(4) Adding more light will favour more attractive types of algae
(5) If you grow plants well, algae tends to fade away
(6) Removing the algae manually is the only quick-fix

My recommendation would be to either let nature take its course and ignore the algae as best you can, or to add better lighting and plants to change the balance of the tank away from the brown algae towards the plants or green algae.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[Flumpus]

I had the same problem with brown algae. I hat a lot, and it was getting annoying, but it'd come back pretty fast. It's actually stopped for the most part. Part of it is my unknown, thriving shrimp I'm sure. He consumes a huge amount of algae, and has really cleaned up my tank. I think he may be gone now though. I actually didn't mind it a lot. I've got holey rock, which is white, and a little layer of brown algae on top didn't look too bad. It also didn't look bad on the slate. Only place I really didn't like it was the fake plants, but my gobies actually pick at that now too. I'm not sure if that's common, but they're well fed and are healthy, just pick at and eat some algae occasionally.

 

[Mudfrog]

brown algae grows in everyones brackish tank

I can honestly say I've never had brown algae. I know I probably will now that I have said that. I keep my SG at 1.008 and my brackish tank has been up and running for over a year.

 

[nmonks]

Hi Mudfrog,

Lucky you! No algae!

Anyway, took a quick look at your web page, and your "unknown gobies" are almost certainly Dormitator lebretonis. A really nice goby, grows to about 10 cm, eats a mix of algae and small animals. From West Africa.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[Little Fish]

I can honestly say I've never had brown algae. I know I probably will now that I have said that. I keep my SG at 1.008 and my brackish tank has been up and running for over a year.

I have had all kinds of algae in my brackish tank at different times. Even the most algae-free mangroves area in my tank has a small amount of green algae. I've checked out your brackish tank. Nice set up and no algae at all; I'm so jealous!

 

[Mudfrog]

Thanks for the comments. That pic is kind of old, the tank doesn't even look like that anymore. I'll post some updated pics tonight when my camera is charged.

nmonks... I think you might have figured it out! Those look very very close to mine. I have one which is about 2.5-3" now and I'll get a better pic of him tonight as well. Thank you very much!