# Brown algae problem.



## Burks (May 25, 2006)

First a little tank history:

Size: 10g
Lighting: 15w, 11 hours a day
Filtration: Aqua-Tech 10-20g power filter. Carbon insert (what came with it)
Age: About 4-5 weeks
Population: 4 White Clouds, 1 Opaline Gourami
Plants: 15 Anacharis, 1 Amazon Sword, 5 bunches Water Sprites, 2 Vals
Ammonia: 0-0.25 (color is between those)
Nitrite: 0
Temperature: 76-78F

Over the past two weeks I've noticed that my sword if getting covered by a brown film pretty quickly. It just rubs right off when I touch it with my fingers or gravel vac. I'm assuming this is brown algae from what I've read.

Suggested treatments include:

Starving it of light. Would this harm my plants?
Prefiltering the water for water changes. What would I use?
Filtering the water already in the tank. Same as above.
Placing a couple otos in the tank to clear it up. Problem is I wanted to add 5 Neons to the tank in a few days. Possible overstock of the tank (even with the plants)?

Which would you do that would have the least impact on the fish, plants, and wallet?


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Its not really an algae, it is a flagellated little creature that does not need light. Its tails help it reattach to surfaces after you clean them off. There are a few causes for this annoyance, usually they appear in new tanks, dirty tanks or tanks with low light. 

You could put a few ottos in there and a few neons as well, you will not overload the tank. This is a good choice short of getting more light/waiting for the tank to mature/doing more water changes. Ottos love the stuff.

Lowering the light would not help, and would probably make it worse.


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## Burks (May 25, 2006)

Good to hear. I'll pick a couple ottos up tonight then. 

Could have sworn I read about starving it of light. "Brown algae" is classified as a diatom right?

Raising the light is something I'm currently working on. Should be up to 3wpg within a month (short of funds, college student). I have been doing more frequent water changes and it seemed to help slow it down a little. Still can cover a large leaf within 1.5-2 days.

Thanks for the advice.


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## Burks (May 25, 2006)

Man I went to three fish stores today and NONE of them had any Oto Catfish (or by any other name). Sold out but they had tons of CAE. 

Going to another store tomorrow to see if they have any. I may break down and get a CAE if that will do the job.

On a side note. I did get 5 Neon Tetras for $5 at Petco. *shrugs* They have decent cichlids too. No GBR or anything like that though. Grrrrr....


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## joephys (May 9, 2006)

If its a new tank, it will probably clear up after a while as things start to cycle and settle in.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Yea, it might clear up, but then again ottos are realllly good cleaners. I just got a school of 4 of them from petco >.< (uuuugh) and 5 others from other stores. Boy let me tell you, i thought i had no algae before... jeezeee these guys are like the UV/diatom filters of the fish world. They made everything sparkling squeeky clean! I was really surprised.

I also went to some stores that said they didn't have any ottos but then I looked in their tanks and lo and behold they had tons of them. D'oh!!!! Seriously some of the people who work there don't even know what they are. One guy who worked there was wondering whether they were carnivorous or peaceful. D'ooooh. Just take a look through their tanks, otto cats are their short name, but they may be labeled as Otocinclus affinis. You can see a pic of them here http://nathalie.lecocq.free.fr/aquario/Poissons/slides/IMG_0043.jpg

Also as far as i have heard nothing else will eat the brown "algae," apparently its unpalatable to most fish.

Btw i love the avatar, Mr. Burns haha, looks so evil as usual


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## Burks (May 25, 2006)

Zapins said:


> Btw i love the avatar, Mr. Burns haha, looks so evil as usual


 He's my favorite character.

The Oto cats go under a few different names I guess. Some I found were "Dwarf Sucker Mouth", "Oto Catfish", and "Golden Otocinclus". Checked all their tanks and there weren't any to be found. Oh well. I know Pet Supplies Plus _did_ have them.


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

I find Petsmart and Petco usually carry Otos. The CAE won't do much for algae. 

-John N.


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## yxberia (Apr 19, 2005)

I have great result with Phophate & Silicate remover resin against diatoms. Cheap and fast.


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## Burks (May 25, 2006)

John N. said:


> I find Petsmart and Petco usually carry Otos. The CAE won't do much for algae.
> 
> -John N.


Petco said they'll be getting more in within a couple weeks. Pets Supplies Plus had ONE Oto but it was pretty sick looking........$2.59 as well.

These may turn out to be harder to find then Blue Rams. :frusty:

I'll look into that resin. May be just the quick fix I need.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

They should be pretty common fish... Weird that your shop doesn't have them.

Mine sells for 1.75 ea


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## Burks (May 25, 2006)

Update:

I picked up four of the little guys (along with 6 Cherry Barbs, $1 each) while I was home for the weekend. All survived the two hour trip and are doing very well.

You can actually see where the Otos have been due to the lack of brown on the glass. These guys must be excited, all you can eat! Oddly enough the more I look at them, the more attractive and interesting they are. My dad was also having an algae problem (mainly concentrated on the gravel, green/brown and a bit stringy) so he bought some too. They went right to work.


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

Cool. Hopefully they won't die on you anytime soon. I've had bad luck with otos. Every time I purchase some, half of what I bought dies. From what I understand, they are typically starved when in a fish store due to no algae on the glass, and when they are captured in the wild they are subjected to Cyanide poisoning to draw them up to the water's surface for capture. So I always buy a few more extra. But once they are established, they don't die, but the aglae sure does. 

-John N.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Woah, I thought they banned using cyanide for that reason??


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