# algae problem



## ara35 (Oct 12, 2008)

i believe it is algae but on my plants, bacopa carolina most of all, the older leaves are turning brown. it looks like they have a covering on them cause when i wipe them it comes off. my light is 2.66 watts per gallon, and im following the dosing calculator on this forum. the problem could be my diy co2. it seems to be on and off and i cant get it to work right i guess. but anyway, would this cause algae? how can i fix this problem??


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

Yes, non-constant CO2 can lead to algae outbreaks. When I was doing DIY, I changed out my mixtures weekly to try to keep it as constant as possible, but it was still difficult to do. You can try using Excel to fight the algae.

-Dave


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I second davemonkey's comment about changing out DIY CO2 mixes to keep them constant. Try starting a new bottle every week, then simply swap out the bottle attached to the tank after 1 week with the new bottle that was started. So at any given point in time you have 2 bottles going, started a week or so apart. 

The brown algae you have is not a true algae it is a single celled organism that feeds off organic material in your tank. It usually appears in new tanks that have just been set up, in tanks with a lot of food waste that has built up, or in tanks that have low light. The "algae" might be feeding off the other gasses coming out the DIY CO2 setup.

Excel will not harm this algae to the best of my knowledge. But otto cats will eat the stuff voraciously. Just be sure to get more than 3 of them because they absolutely need company.


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