More on diatoms...

[Alfcea]

Hi,

My recently set up 30 gal tank has started developig some brown algae... I read somewhere that it is common in newly set up tanks and that it usually dissapears suddenly on its own. My question, though is....

The diatoms are growing on the leaves of an amazon sword (and surprisingly not on the anubias which I thought was more prone to being attacked by algae!!!)... Will these diatom patches block off the light and therefore eventually kill my amazon sword?... Can I just wait for a while and see if the brown patches dissapear by themselves?...Or should I take more extreme meassures right now?

[TorqueWorks]

I am having the same problem right now. It is killing my swords. I have no clue on what to do to stop it. I did a 25% water change tonight to see if that helps.

[Evil Slimy]

Could very well be that it's because you setup your tank recently, but if it's limited to the amazon sword, and nowhere else on the tank, it could be caused by the amazon sword.

Amazon swords are often grown emersed so when you plant them, all their leaves die slowly and get replaced by a new type of leaf. Generally thinner and with less of a stem. As the old emersed leaves die off, they often release nutrients in the tank and get algae on them.

If your algae really is only limited to the sword, you can try removing one or two of the affected leaves. In a few days the sword will have replaced them. You can repeat again for two more leaves and see if you can remove the algae that way. It has worked well for me in the past.

[Lady Hobbs]

Fun, isn't it? You spend money for plants and for lights and then have to put up looking at that brown stuff.

[TorqueWorks]

Yeah..what a party.thumbs2: Thanks slimy, I will give that a try.