# Ugly brown algae



## Jeff232 (Nov 4, 2006)

this stuff grows in long strings, its a light tan color and is difficult to get a hold of to manually remove due to its thinness/slipperiness. it also like to grow around the base of my larger plants in a blob. It appeared when i went on a vacation and got lazy about dosing my ferts/water changes and keeping my DiY co2 running. I have three oto's a few pond snails and its a 100 gallon tank. If i were to purchase some more algae eaters/shrimp would this help? a blackout? waterchanges/co2/ferts/patience? excel?

thanks


----------



## Jeff232 (Nov 4, 2006)

no suggestions on the best way to rehab a neglected tank? should i attempt all of the above that i listed as options or is there a specific order i should do it in?


----------



## JamesC (Jul 26, 2005)

Sounds as though it is most likely rhizoclonium. Normally it's green but I have seen it a brown colour before. Mainly caused by neglect. Get CO2, ferts etc going well and it should stop growing. You'll still need to remove as much as possible. Amano shrimp do eat it. For some algae ID's take a look at http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm.

James


----------



## Jeff232 (Nov 4, 2006)

thanks James, that does look quite a bit like my problem. I think I'm going to get a CO2 injector system running since I'm not as faithful keeping my DiY co2 running as I thought I would be.


----------



## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

get a couple of flag fish while you get the tank in order, they should ead all of this away.


----------



## Jeff232 (Nov 4, 2006)

ive heard that flag fish are pretty aggressive and i want to keep my tank nice and peaceful, how will they get along with tetras, otos, shrimp and other small fish ?


----------



## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

I am no expert, but mine are pretty peaceful.
I have them with some cardinal tetra's, a female apisto cacatoides, a trio of very young apisto mcmasteri, some baby albino bushynose pleco's and ammano shrimp, all in a 20 long.
They show no agression, they only eat the algae away, not attacking plants that I can see.
Again, I am no expert on them and have not kept them for very long, but I am 100% satisfied with them and plan to add them, at least for some times for algae control, in most all of my tanks.

Also, as a bonus, I find them very nice looking little fish.


----------



## Jeff232 (Nov 4, 2006)

thanks a million for the suggestion on the Florida flag fish. I just bought a couple and with 5 minutes they were devouring some of ugliest algae in the tank  I also picked up another few oto's so now i have over a dozen for my 100 gallon. The CO2 is running again and i even saw o2 bubbles coming out of my plants today(its been a while) SO my algae problems stem form lack of c02 for sure. I also bought a bunch of ghost shrimp to clean up even more. I think the problem is going to go away soon.


----------

