# Brown Algae?



## ethoscraig

Well I have set up a planted aquarium a few weeks ago and it only had 1WPG to start off with. No signs of algae or anything. I was just waiting for my T5HO lights to come in, the company sort of fapped me around and it ended up taking 4 weeks for it to come in. The T5HO lighting brings up the total light to 2.8WPG which I have read should be suitable for the plants I am keeping.

Anyway in the past 3 days since I put the T5HO lighting on the tank, it looks like some brown algae has settled mostly on the leaves of my broad leaved plants. 

The one thing that makes me confused is I thought brown algae liked low lighting conditions? If that was the case then why did this algae bloom only when I put the high output lighting onto the tank?

What do you guys think it is? And what should I do to get rid of it?

I have not tested the water for about 5 days now. But I did test it after my last waterchange + fertilization. 

Ive read that brown algae basically feeds on silicate and phosphate. I don't have a silicate test kit, but I have a phosphate test kit and its reading around 1 ppm which I didn't think was too bad.

Another thing I just realized is I turned off the co2 injection when I got the lights because my CO2 level was up around 30ppm. At this level I could see the plants releasing oxygen but my fish were swimming around a bit slower. So I left it off because I wasn't going to be able to look at the tank until today. 

Do you guys think this is brown algae/diatoms and if so what should I do to get rid of it whilst its still in its infancy?


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## Yo-han

Brown algae will always be there, low or high light. It comes from silicates from your tapwater, so as long as you do waterchanges, it will be there (unless you use silicate filters) but fortunate it is one of the easiest to remove and by just putting a few otocinclus in there, they'll feast on it and will keep it away. No need to worry!


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## ethoscraig

Awesome thanks for that. 

I just ordered 3 oto's for my tank that should hopefully arrive on Wednesday.

At the second I only have x10 rummy nose tetras, and x6 corydoras sterbai. So no algae eating catfish. I was intending on getting a royal whiptail for the tank in the future too. Do you think this will still necessary with the oto's in the tank? Also do you think the whiptail would be good in the planted aquarium? Because I really like the look of whiptails and loved them when I have kept them in the past.

I have a lot of experiance with keeping fish in aquariums. But rather novice when it comes to planted aquariums. Ive only really had amazon swords, java fern, and java moss which are all really easy to keep.

At the moment I have been doing a 50/50 waterchange with tapwater and bottled water (we get bottled water in bulk, around x100 5 gal bottles at a time) and the bottled water is really quite pure. It has 0 GH 0 KH, near 0 phosphates, near 0 iron levels amongst other parameters I have tested. Hopefully it has near 0 silicates also.

I have also ordered some buffers intended for RO water to add general, and carbonate hardness to the water. I think I will just do 100% bottled water changes in the future. The bottled water cost me nothing and the people who pay for it are more than happy to let me use it for the fish tank. Its only a 40 gallon aquarium so a 25% weekly waterchange hardly puts a dent on the bottled water supply.

Do you guys think this will cure the problem?


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## Paytertot

If its diatoms, it will go away.. it happens with new tanks


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## Sjb1987

my ottos wont touch diatoms/brown algae...it just had to go away with the tank maturing as said above


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## ethoscraig

The only thing is the tank has actually been set up for around a year now. I just converted it to a planted aquarium.

Previously someone else was looking after it, and just had crappy goldfish in it.

In addition to the diatoms looking unsightly im just worried about the plants abilities to photosynthesis with the brown algae covering there leaves.


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## Sjb1987

could you post a pic? diatoms are weird sometimes they will just come back out of no where


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## Yo-han

ethoscraig said:


> At the moment I have been doing a 50/50 waterchange with tapwater and bottled water (we get bottled water in bulk, around x100 5 gal bottles at a time) and the bottled water is really quite pure. It has 0 GH 0 KH, near 0 phosphates, near 0 iron levels amongst other parameters I have tested. Hopefully it has near 0 silicates also.
> 
> I have also ordered some buffers intended for RO water to add general, and carbonate hardness to the water. I think I will just do 100% bottled water changes in the future. The bottled water cost me nothing and the people who pay for it are more than happy to let me use it for the fish tank. Its only a 40 gallon aquarium so a 25% weekly waterchange hardly puts a dent on the bottled water supply.
> 
> Do you guys think this will cure the problem?


It only cures the problem if the water contains no silicates... For example a normal RO unit (GH, KH, PO4 Fe all 0) doesn't filter silicates. You need to add a special silicate filter.

I do heavy waterchanges in my 100G (see journal in footnote) with water with silicates in it and brown algae never returned, my 18 oto's keep up with it. Help them on there way by cleaning most of the leaves with your fingers/sponge and they take care of the rest.



Sjb1987 said:


> my ottos wont touch diatoms/brown algae...it just had to go away with the tank maturing as said above


I work at a lfs and whenever plants get diatoms/brown algae in our plant tanks I tranfer the plants to our oto tank and they clean them in 1-2 hours. Off course there are over 100 otocinclus in there. Maybe you spoilt your oto's with better food


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## OrangeCones

Yo-han said:


> there are over 100 otocinclus in there.


I'd pay to see THAT many otos in one tank! My LFS gets them in 12 at a time. I have 37!


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## ethoscraig

Well I have ordered a silicate test kit and Seachem Phosguard to nuke these silicates. 

I also ordered 20 glass shrimp and 3 oto's. I really want to get rid of this algae, it really makes the plants look pretty bad. It would surely be preventing the plants from photosynthesizing because all but the freshest leaves are covered in it.

The growth of plants actually seems to have slowed down since I upgraded the lighting from 1 to 2.8 WPG. Would this algae blocking out the leaves be the culprit?


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## ethoscraig

Well I put 3 oto's in the tank, and one day later! awesome! They really destroyed those pesky diatoms. I've never seen 3 little fish eat so much algae.

I also realized (stupid me) that after putting the high output lighting in I needed to increase the CO2 and fertilizer dosages because of the higher light increasing the photosynthesis process leaving them with a nutrient deficiency.

Tank looks much better now. Thanks for the help guys.


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## Yo-han

Good to hear it worked! And yes, co2 and ferts should be increased as well. But this is independent from the brown algae. Hope to see some nice photos soon!


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## ethoscraig

Here is the tank at the second










It still needs to grow out a bit so I can shape it some more. But if you saw it last week it looks a heap better than then. Still a few diatoms on the leaves but nothing compared to a few days ago before the oto's.


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