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Hello all...

I have jungle vals, hornwort, wisteria and anacharis in my 20 g. I get this brown, sometimes fuzzy algae gunk growing on my plants. I have tried otos, they didnt do much and eventually died. I have golden mystery snails, they arent really doing much. I am careful not to overfeed, and I do a 25% WC and gravel vac every 7-10 days. I even tried keeping the lights off for a few days.

Does anyone have any similar experience or any ideas? It is brown, and the heaviest buildup is on the broad leaves of the vals and wisteria. I get brownish gravel here and there, and the glass too sometimes, but that cleans easily with a scrape and gravel vac.

I'd love to be rid of this stuff... it just doesnt look all too great lol

Thanks!

http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=9

Scott There is a small article there on brown algae it might help you.

As far as water changes I would increase it to a min of 30% weekly. Set a timetable to do it and stick to it.
What type of filtration & lighting do you have?
I think a SAE would help far better than any ottos.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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Thanks Keith, I will check that out!

I have an Aqua Clear HOB filter with bio and sponge media. I only use carbon after meds. I have that filter wide open for a nice current and water turnover.

I have a single bulb in my hood it's a Life-Glo 2 6700K 15 watt high intensity lamp (high noon spectrum). It is on a timer, 2 pm to 10 pm daily.

red cherry shrimp would help http://www.azgardens.com/shrimpfactory.phpthere is also a load of other shrimp on this site to look at

33 gallon 7 neon tetras-5 platys-3 bleeding heart tetras-2 corys-1 rainbow shark-2 L83 gibby plecos

Hi Scott,
What you are experiencing is a reoccurring outbreak of
diatoms. These critters feed on excess silica in
the water. The Silica can come from your tap water or
from the dust in your gravel. In reading your post in
AquaScaping, "Got Rocks," you mention that you
just started this tank. The usual time for an outbreak
of diatoms is during the first few months of beginning
a new tank. This is when the silica dust is at
its highest levels. Regular water changes will
soon eliminate the excess silica.
Diatoms prefer low currents in the water as this allows
the silica to sit in stagnant areas called "sumps." These
sumps also allow excess waste products to accumulate as
well.

To eliminate the problem you need to address several points.
1. Your light is less than one watt per gallon. Diatoms
prefer low light. The plants that you have are not all
low light plants. You should strive to increase your watts
per gallon to around 2.
2. The time your lights are on is only 8 hours, this short
"day time" cycle encourages diatom growth and hinders plant
growth. You should consider expanding the Day Cycle to 10
hours per day.
Otto's will normally go nuts over the brown algae. Why they
died is probably a matter of another post.
3. You don't mention the model Aqua-Clear filter you have
but its probably on the small side. You should arrange
the plants and any ornaments in the tank to try and improve
circulation within the tank. Eliminate the dead areas.
4. While your maintenance is great, you might want to cut
back from 30% to somewhere around 10-20% (depending upon
the bio-load of the tank.) Also, when cleaning the tank
gravel, mentally section off the non-planted part of the
tank into 4 sections and each week clean a different section.
That way, over a month's time, you will have cleaned all
the non-planted parts of the tank and at the same time
given the bacteria colonies in each section time
to recover from the cleaning.

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Frank-

As usual, great stuff, thanks!

Yea, the otos are probably for another post lol. They did well for over a month, then one by one, I lost 'em.

I can and shall immediately increase my day cycle to 10 hrs.

I can definitely find another bulb, one that has greater wattage.

I do notice when I feed, I usually drop my flakes, etc in the front right corner of the tank, and the AC filter is in the right rear (opposite corner) of the tank. As I drop flakes, they immediately swirl with the movement of the tank water. So, it would appear that I am getting decent flow and movement. Heck, some of the nastiest algae is on the leaves of the jungle vals that are right in the flow path of the filter lol. However, there seems to be a fairly substantial concentration of algea on the hornwort as it floats in one corner of the tank, possibily indicating a dead spot. Maybe an air pump with a stone at the base of the hornwort could provide some necessary movement?

The model of filter is: CD350009 (150) 30g capacity Hagen Aquaclear.

When I gravel vac, I clean roughly 25% of the area with each 25% WC. The plants are scattered so I try to get close but not close eough to disturb the plants.

The tank with these issues is my 20g, and has been up since May 31, 2007. However, I did add a few new rocks here and there early this fall, maybe September or so. So perhaps I added some silica as well lol.
Bottom line, it sounds like the easiest way to affect change is to change my lighting. While I am always hesitant to add new fish, especially gold algae eaters, I will try the lighting changes first.

Thx Frank!