# Brown Algae



## latchdan (Sep 7, 2007)

Tank specifics
37 gallon
2X55 watt power compact lighting
injected co2 ~40ppm
ph 8.0w/o co2 7.0 w/ co2
kh 12-13

Flourite substrate
weekly 50% water changes i dose 1 tsp potassium sulfate after each water change
Dose 5ml flourish comp every other day
Dose 3.1 ml flourish iron everyday. (was doing it every other day but changed to every day)

I Dose potassium nitrate when needed usually kept around 10ppm
Phosphate .5ppm dosed by fleet enenima

The problem im having is i get brown algae that grows on the glass and on some of my plants. It kinda looks like diatoms but im not sure how to stop this algae. It may be a red algae because sometimes its really hard to remove from the glass and i have to scrub it really hard. The plants i have problems with this algae are fore grown plants mostly, also ricca.

Anyone got any recommendations that i could do to stop this algae? I also have 1 SAE and 3 ottos and they haven't really done anything to this algae.


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## latchdan (Sep 7, 2007)

Here are some pictures showing the algae on various surfaces


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

I had the same issue in one of my 10 gallons and no matter what I tried, I couldn't get rid of it. Even when I scraped it off with a credit card, it would come back. Just for the heck of it, I took some barley straw bits, placed them in a mesh filter bag(actually pantyhose) secured it in place, where the water from the filter would splash on it and where maximum light would hit it. Within a few days, I noticed clear circles beginning to form on the glass where the algae was - kind of like when you get in your car on a cold winter morning, the inside of your windshield is fogged, and then you turn on the heat, clear circles form and then the whole glass clears. After 2 weeks, the glass is 90% clean and I don't see the algae coming back. I did not make any other changes to the tank, increase/decrease C02 or ferts, or increase/decrease water changes, so I cannot help but think that the barley straw had something to do with clearing the algae. The only problem that I am seeing now is that while this algae is disappearing, it seems to be replaced by repeated bouts of BGA which I was not getting before.


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## latchdan (Sep 7, 2007)

What is barley straw? where can i get it?


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

latchdan said:


> What is barley straw? where can i get it?


It is just straw that is produced from the growth of barley and looks like wheat straw. You can see if there is a local farmer area in your area that has some that you can get - the only problem is that the barley it came from may have been grown using pesticides which cannot be a good thing for fish.

These articles explain why the straw may work on some kinds of algae.
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/plants/barley.htm
http://www.pondsplus.com/Infofiles/art03.htm

The only thing I would suggest that you consider is using barley straw extract. The straw can take 1-3 months to work, but the extract should work right away. You can purchase the barley straw extract if you cannot get it from a local pond supplies place or your local fish store.
http://search.stores.ebay.ca/Easy-P...QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQsaselZ184251540QQsuZeasypet

This stuff is highly concentrated, so be careful to use very little. I cannot guarantee that it will 100% work for you, but it worked for me. And I am not sure if treating/killing this kind of algae caused an increase in another kind of algae - Blue Green Algae. You may want to see what other members have to say about your algae before you decide to try this. If I recall, the traditional way of dealing with your kind of algae if it is diatoms on the plants is to use oto fish to consume it off the plants. From your picture, you have green dust algae on the glass, which is what I had but with more brown than green. It is said that if you leave the algae alone, it will form sheets and peel off on its own after a few weeks.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/algae/31234-algae-glass.html

For some people this approach works. I found that the algae on my glass did not form sheets and peel off on its own. That is why I tried the barley straw.

Regards


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## latchdan (Sep 7, 2007)

yeah it didn't come off in sheets i let it grow on the back wall and the sides it just formed a thick red/brown wall. I had to use a razor blade to remove it because even a coase algae scrubber wouldn't remove it. It look black with a little purple in it when i removed it. Also on the blue green algae. I had it before and it was caused by poor water circulation and poor water conditions. After i increased water changes it went away. I don't no if that will work for you or not.


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## latchdan (Sep 7, 2007)

I found some of that barley straw extract at the LFS but they were wanting 30 bucks for a 8 oz bottle. So i called another store but it was like 45 mins away from my house they sell 16 oz for 14.00. So ima wait till im down there for school next week and pick some up. My LFS is such a rip off i swear.


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## Carissa1 (Aug 25, 2007)

How long has the tank been set up? I found that brown algae usually forms in a newer setup, I especially had a problem with the tank I used sand in, I think it was leaching silicates (which is a major component of diatoms). Evidently sometimes new tanks can leach silica from the glass too for the first while. The good thing was that algae eating fish seem to love brown algae, since I got my pleco I haven't had an issue at all.

BGA seems to have been caused, in my case, by too much light and too many nutrients resulting from decomposition of organic matter in the substrate, and probably also not enough of certain other nutrients. After I killed a full tank of plants with it, I changed my substrate and started dosing with ei and doing weekly water changes, and I haven't had an issue since.


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## latchdan (Sep 7, 2007)

Tanks been running for 3-4 years. Before this red and brown algae. I had a lot of fuzz/hair algae that i guess kept it away. After getting rid of that algae this red algae came and started tanking over. Its a never ending battle i guess.


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## Carissa1 (Aug 25, 2007)

I'm not totally sure I understand this correctly, but are you dosing phosphate 1x/week, or are you testing regularly and keeping it at .5ppm all the time? Are you sure your test kits are accurate for nitrate and phosphate?

Since you're already doing 50% water changes it might just be easiest to start dosing according to the ei method and see what happens rather than relying on test kits.


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## latchdan (Sep 7, 2007)

whats the ei method i dose phosphate when i need to dose it.


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## Carissa1 (Aug 25, 2007)

Check out the article "EI light" on this site (estimative index)
www.barrreport.com

Basically the idea is, you add enough micros and macros after your water change to provide a certain level of each, top up with extra ferts throughout the week if you think it's needed (high light/co2/well planted etc. just experiment a little), then at the end of the week you do a 50% water change and then refertilize again which basically resets all the fert levels. The idea is that you will be dosing more than enough thus avoiding the need of test kits, but doing the water change resets things so nothing builds up to harmful levels. I don't even own any test kits and both my tanks are doing great with almost no algae.

The advantage of doing this is that often test kits are inaccurate, this way you know you have enough of everything and you don't have to worry about levels anymore.


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## latchdan (Sep 7, 2007)

Thanks for the info


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## jARDINI (Sep 2, 2007)

the greenhouse that i work at sells barley straw extract and small bags of the straw itself. u can find it anyware that sells pond stuff


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## latchdan (Sep 7, 2007)

yeah i found it but my LFS is a rip off so i have to go to a different fish store tomorrow which is a lot farther away to get it cheap. I will tell ya how everything works out.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

otos, sae, small plecos enjoy eating the stuff.
we can't escape algae, so might as well feed them to the fishes.


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## latchdan (Sep 7, 2007)

i have both SAE and ottos in this tank already.
I also got this barley straw extract today. its says its both barley straw and peat extract. Im hoping this is ok its made my the brand tetra. says 10ml per 50 gallons. i added 6.1 ml to my tank


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

correct me if i'm wrong but isn't the straw's effectiveness is due to its release of small amount of H2O2. Why not add H2O2?

Anyways, you manually remove the stuff and do a water change. And add more wattage to you lights. That should work.


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## latchdan (Sep 7, 2007)

is H2O2 is that hydrogen peroxide?


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## DBTS (May 10, 2007)

latchdan said:


> is H2O2 is that hydrogen peroxide?


Yes it is.


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## latchdan (Sep 7, 2007)

well i have been dosing the EI method and im getting lots of green dust algae and there looks like some hair algae is appearing... should i up the micros? or what should i do?


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