Stupid brown algea!

[Slummies]

When i had my SA community tank running i had problems with brown algea growing on my rocks and pool filter sand. the bristlenose didnt touch it.

now that im getting Discus from Singularity, iv decided against substrate and just potting some plants.

anyone know how i can get rid of this algea? i put the lights on less and still didnt help! im not to keen on using chemicals..

thank you

[Slummies]

hmm, i didnt give it enough time to find out. it just kept getting worse

[Singularity]

ditto to what delilah said, google diatoms if you want to learn more :p

[Slummies]

diatoms... sounds to much like old biology class

[spikey]

I just changed my water more often... green and brown algae just dissappeared... Don't know how to explain it. I just change the water after 3 days instead of weekly.

[solex69]

I had brown algae for ages in one specific tank until I discovered it was my substrate that was causing the problem. I had fine black sand (looked like the black sand I had was made for industrial use) that leeched copper/zinc into the water causing brown algae to develop and also killing numerous fish. When I redid the tank, no more brown algae. So the question is, what exactly do you have as a substrate? Better yet, give complete specs of your tank if you don't mind pls

Brown algae does wipe off easily, but it multiplies at a rapid rate and just looks ugly in a tank.

But yes, google diatoms as well to aid you

Cheers
Dale

[spikey]

Hey Dale,

I just have plain white sand as a substrate. I first noticed that when I change the water more often than usual, the green algae became less. When I got brown algae, I thought I'd try the same, and it worked. I dunno why though.

[solex69]

Plain white sand? Where did you get the sand from?

[spikey]

A friend who had to much of it.. He bought it from either Sams or Panorama Pets.

[solex69]

Oh ok, I then assume it is fine silica sand. That shouldn't be the problem as I run that substrate in all my tanks and never had brown algae appear because of that. The problem is probably something else.
Some more tank specs/info Slummies?

[Slummies]

150 x 70h x 50. Ph around 6.5. lighting: 5 x 100w engery savers. it is near the window, but only gets direct sunlight for about 10min in the morning.

[spikey]

I haven't ever run tests on my water yet. Will need to do that soon. All I can say is, that the pH should be low as I always have an airstone running. I can't remember what the name of is of the anti-chlorine I use, I'll get the name for you later, but I run an airstone in my fresh water for at least 3days before putting it into my tank. Once this is in, you can actually see the fine bubbles. It's also about 20litres that I replace at a time.

[solex69]

Too much light in the tank perhaps? Chuck in some guppy grass + duckweed if you have....that will also aid your tank in becoming healthy. Maybe also clean off all the algae out of the tank and leave your tank lights off for a day or so and see if the algae comes back.

PS - Do you have the Phillips Coolwhites or Daylight tubes?

Cheers
D

[Slummies]

the tank is stripped at the moment. its going to be a BB tank for my discus. i have Osram daylight and a lunar light

[solex69]

I had Daylights before but I got green algae after a while. When I switched to the coolwhites, algae stopped. Now I don't run those anymore, I stick to T5s.....I only have about 3 T8 tubes operational still, and when I'm not too lazy, I will replace those with T5 as well.

@delilah - Didn't Henk mention something about an airstone lowering pH a bit? Remember he said something about buffering? It's somewhere here on the forum (I'm just too lazy to open another browser now :) )

[solex69]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up.

Hmmm....didn't know you were a chemist; interesting ;)

D

[Slummies]

a chemist.. hmm thats pretty interesting.. thought a phamisist was more fitting;)

[solex69]

I am a researcher in physico-chemical properties of solid-state active pharmaceutical ingredients :p

ALL HAIL DELILAH! :top:
:congrats:

[Slummies]

please forgive me queen d! hehehe

[solex69]

lol :)

[Scaly]

Apparently the butterfly pleco is good at keeping diatoms under control...