From green to brown

Hi ,if something is not broken you should not fix it.


First i had ich and put the temperature up to 30 celsius , used bio-elite anti ich 10- 14 days .
Rescaped the tank and changed the to bio- elite aquarium plant grow.
Got brown algae and plants started dying,did water change of 50% and blacked out tank for 3 days.
Now am using sera Florena and the algae is dying down .



How can i now kill the brown algae completely? :idea:

 

Brown algae (diatom algae) is part and parcel of a newly set up planted tank.Wipe it from the glass and equipment.As the set up matures,the diatoms will subside.Continue fertilising with a quality liquid fertiliser.Remember to clean the filter.
You can add some otto catfish if you can find them.

 

Brown algae = Diatoms due to excess silicates.... New Tank? (less than 3 months? ) - Dont worry,it is only diatoms - will lessen/disappear in not to long.... a little gang of Otto's will help,but patience for a little while longer will see it go away soon by itself...

Our water(generally) here in Gauteng causes Diatoms to do this.... as your plants get down to really growing,this wil become a thing of the past.... Bad news is that it is then that the Staghorn and thread/hair algae usually start...lol - the joys of planted tanks.........lol

 

What I find strange is how quickly you jumped to the conclusion that a 3 day black out would solve this problem.

You mention the plants were dying (lack of nutrients/quality fertiliser) and then the black out (lack of light does not help dying plants).

Always improve the plant health before trying to kill algae.
Healthy plants = good growth = no or very little algae.

 

Negative vibes bro,don't jix the guy.

 

So it is not from too little or too bright light and will go away by itself .

 

If you can give a complete run down of the set up,light,filter,substrate,ferts.....ect.,water changes,how much,how often....ect.
I'll tell you how to go further.

 

Substrate = gravel
Tank= 30L
Light = clip on lamp 24w for 3 hours and 4 hours.
Filter= 2x elite hush 10 hob.
Water changes 20% weekly
Ferts= Sera Florena 5ml weekly

 

Gravel substrate is inert/no ferts,so quality liquid fert is very important.Also get some root tablets,the Sera range is good,and insert under gravel.

Please explain,is the light on for 3 hours and sometimes 4 hours?
Clean the filters regularly and I'm talking about the media.clean the intake, the pipe,the impeller.You don't want any flow restriction.
What filter media do you have,sponges,bio rings?

Increase the water change to 50% weekly untill you see improvement in plant health.Then reduce to 30% weekly.

Continue as instructions on bottle.

 

Light is on for 7hours in total ,5 hours break in between.
Will clean the filter tomorrow and go looking for root tablets.
Can it be 10% daily Water change ?

 

One filter has ceramic noodles and one has filter wool and sponge .

 

Plants need at least 4 hours of continuous light to start photosynthesising.That 5 hour break is doing more harm than good.Reduce the siesta period to 2 hours.
Where did you get the 5 hour break advice?

Look at this logically:
I assume you dose the liquid ferts once a week,if you were to do a water change every day,you would strip the tank of all the nutrients you added before the plants had a chance to use it.Or you have to dose every day and then remove the ferts every day...this is a waste of ferts and money.
Do it once a week,15 liters is nothing and should take you only a few minutes.

 

Assuming the filter wool and sponge is to polish the water,rinse the sponge regularly with every water change and replace the wool regularly,with every water change.

 

5 hour break was my idea :embarrest: i guess more is not always better.
15L once a week makes sense to me .

 

Yes captain :captain:

 

As @azurekoi said, a team of otto's is all you need to get rid of the diatom algae, I have battled with it for a long time and finally got myself some otto's and believe me, they do an amazing job! Diatom algae is now a thing of the past for me

 

I did as Rudi instructed , will now wait and see. :bigsmile:

 

Algae? What is that? Can't say I've ever seen this menace called algae, what with having one or more pleco in each tank

 

update:
The good news is that the plants have started to grow again
and the bad news the algae also.

 

Update:

The brown algae have turned black.