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I have had my 10 gallon set up for about 4 months now and recently (1 month) took over my dad's 29 gallon (moved it within an hour and re-used all his water). I am having an issue with brown algae growing "rather" quickly. I do regular water changes and all parameters look good. The 29 seems worse than the 10. It has a few (6) live plants and 30 small (less than 1 inch) fish. It is near a window but the blinds stay closed until noon so NO direct sunlight. I am using a "Life-Glo 2" bulb but the 10 gallon has an "aqua-glo" and see's NO direct sunlight at all. Never has. Can I stop this algae from growing? Can I get rid of the stuff I have harmlessly for the fish? What are your suggestions? Help

Hi,
Brown "algae" is usually not an algae at all but rather an
outbreak of diatoms. Usually this happens when there is
little light, lots of silica, low currents or dead spots,
and a relatively high GH. You may have brought it with
you with the new tank, and then transfered it to the 10G
by using the same net, and other commonly used items.

Generally speaking, the way to rid the tank of an outbreak
is to increase the lighting strength, increase the currents
within the tank, and syphon off the "brown stuff.
Personally, I would immediately change the lights from the
bulbs that you have to any flourscent bulb that fits in
the hood and is labeled SUNLIGHT or DAYLIGHT. These are
about 6700K and perfect for the tank and any plants you
might have.
Some fish, I believe ottos, will eat the brown algae too.


Frank


Last edited by FRANK at 14-Apr-2005 09:09

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I've had trouble with brown algae in combonation with overfeeding. No it doesn't take much to be "overfeeding" your tank especially when it's newly set up. Increase the frequency of your water changes, and try feeding the fish less, either less frequently or smaller ammounts but @the same time of the day.
If you're still having trouble you may wish to look @phosphate removers. These cant be used with all fish, aparently clown loaches don't like them. But it was the only thing that cleaned up my tank after a bad diatoms issue after being away and having had a fish sitter look after the tanks (they'd been instructed to feed every other day only a small ammount pics were provided).
The light issue has long been held to blame, I can't say that I had any improvement when I increased the lighting.

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