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All my tank have brown algae now and I dont know what to do about it. I have simply wiped it off for about 5 months but I can't do that on the back. I can't get any plants or algae eaters either because they wouldn't go good with my current fish. I have heard that increased lighting would help but I don't know.

Last edited by greenmonkey51 at 10-Apr-2005 01:23

Leave the algae on the back. It's going to grow somewhere so you might as well give up a portion of the tank that is least visible to it. Increasing your lighting will give you green instead of brown algae. I'm not sure that would improve your problem any. With no plants you could probably use some algae killing chemicals but I'm not experienced with those. If you have enough light brown algae will usually get out competed by green algae in time but for my tanks that can be 6-8months. If you increase the light it will get taken over by green algae faster. I'd rather wipe brown algae off the glass than scrape at the spot algae in my tanks with higher light. I keep algae eaters in all my tanks because I don't want to dump in chemicals. When I tried an agressive cichlid tank with no algae eaters I had long strings of algae coming off the rocks and columns coming up out of the substrate.

Babelfish pointed out to me that it could be phosphates or silica in the water colum that always turns my tanks dingy brown. I've not yet been able to find a phosphate test kit in any of my lfs, but am about to buy one online to see if that is what my problem is.

I've been battling it for years, and have yet to find a cure... even changing the lighting conditions. I have done some research and found special carbons and filter pads to remove phosphates. When I can finally get my water tested, I'll hopefully have a more definite answer. For now, scraping and cleaning is all you can do. I find products like "Algae Fix" help a little, but it won't completely solve the problem.

My water is very high in phosphates and silicates which is why I get the long strings and actual columns of the stuff. It will show up in any water though so even fixing that won't eliminate the problem. Even the tanks I use bottled water in have brown algae until the green algae shows up. If you have water and light you have some form of algae. Some things will lessen it but you can't eliminate it. Removing phosphates can help keep it more manageable.

I have a new tank (50gal - 4 months old) and started getting brown algae. Then I bought 6 Ottos, which seem to love it. For the last two months, they have been keeping up with it so there is only a small amount still around.

There ain't no way that an otto would last with my africans or big texas

fish that arent compatible with algae eaters ? Hmmm what fish have ya got?

Alot of the more agressive cichlids will slaughter algae eaters. They last maybe a few days. Unless you've got a big enough tank for a pleco 3 times their size they'll kill it. My johanni managed to do in a bristlenose, cae and a 10" common when they were only 4" themselves. Since I couldn't get any larger algae eaters for the size of tank the only option was phosphate removers, algae killing chemicals, and cleaning the tank daily. I gave away the johanni and keep more peaceful cichlids instead.

On the phosphate test issue...aparently they arent very common when I was first investigating it as a cause of my diatom (brown) algae issue I spoke with someone @one of my LFS's (not something I do often). They said they could test it for me as it's more commonly tested for in SW than FW setups.

^_^



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