Brown Algae problem

[bielbugs]

I posted last week sometime asking if what I had was algae. After doing a 50% water change, parameters were back to normal and still are ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 5-10. I cleaned the brown algae off my fake plants as best I could but it seems to be getting worse... what should I do?

[Abbeys_Mom]

Check this thread.
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[bielbugs]

cool, good info there...

Another question, I think the algae started around the time that I removed the carbon from my filter, would that have made a difference?

[Nautilus29]

I was having the same problem as you and then someone recommended to get an oto catfish. In 2 days that little half of an inch guy cleaned out my whole 10g tank and there was alot of algae in there. They only get up to 1.5 inches long and they work wonders.

[Abbeys_Mom]

cool, good info there...

Another question, I think the algae started around the time that I removed the carbon from my filter, would that have made a difference?

Probably just coincidence.

[AuroraAustralis]

Sounds like diatoms. I absolutely loath brown diatom algae. I found this info to be extrememly helpful in getting rid of it.

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I found RowaPhos works well when used to both treat the tank water and water change water as recommended on the page above. Increasing light helped a little but didn't completely clear it.

[bielbugs]

I got a couple bristlenose plecos a couple weeks ago and they initially seemed to be taking care of business but the algae is getting worse. I only see it on the leaves of some of the fake plants in the upper half of the tank and some on the gravel.

One question I have is if the oto cats are better at the brown algae than the bristlenoses I have? I am thinking of taking a water sample to the LFS this weekend to test for phosphates and silicates. If that is the problem are there resins that you can get to put in a power filter? At some point I would like to get a canister but can't right now.

[sergo]

do you have any real plants? if not you could look into getting a few. they are fairly inexpensive and they will help out with sucking up most of the stuff you do water changes for, i.e. phosphates and nitrates.

[Chrona]

I got a couple bristlenose plecos a couple weeks ago and they initially seemed to be taking care of business but the algae is getting worse. I only see it on the leaves of some of the fake plants in the upper half of the tank and some on the gravel.

One question I have is if the oto cats are better at the brown algae than the bristlenoses I have? I am thinking of taking a water sample to the LFS this weekend to test for phosphates and silicates. If that is the problem are there resins that you can get to put in a power filter? At some point I would like to get a canister but can't right now.

Yes, as long as your tank isn't stocked to capacity, I've found that Seachem's Purigen removes enough organics from the water to inhibit algae growth. I'm not sure, but I read that iron in the water column is usually the inhibiting factor in algae growth. I know that only certain kinds of iron can be absorbed by activated carbon (non-chelated I think), but that may also be your cause.

[bielbugs]

a have a few small live plants, but I'm surprised they are still living as I don't have the proper light required. I only have the lights that came with the aquarium hoods which total 2 15W and I have a 55 gal.

I had mentioned earlier that the algae started around the same time that I removed the activated carbon from the filters. Maybe I should buy some and add it.

[cocoa_pleco]

carbon gets rid of nutrients for plants, so it may help a little

[Chrona]

a have a few small live plants, but I'm surprised they are still living as I don't have the proper light required. I only have the lights that came with the aquarium hoods which total 2 15W and I have a 55 gal.

I had mentioned earlier that the algae started around the same time that I removed the activated carbon from the filters. Maybe I should buy some and add it.

What kind of plants are they?

[bielbugs]

I may give it a try. I'll pick some up this weekend.

[bielbugs]

I have no clue what kind they are... I wonder if they are even truely aquarium plants. I had got them from petsmart when I first got the aquarium and although I did a decent amount of research, very little was about live plants

[Chrona]

Can you post pictures of them possibly?

[bielbugs]

here is a pic of my tank, I circled the live plants. I don't have the time right now to try and get better pics of the plants themselves, but will try to soon when I get a chance.


The plants haven't died and the one has actually grown a decent amount but when I got them they weren't being housed in the water, they were in containers with their roots in gel

[Chrona]

Yeah, it's tough to tell. Gel huh? Thats odd.

[bielbugs]

I will try to post better pics in the next couple days

[cocoa_pleco]

nice bright tank

[sergo]

it looks like you have a java fern, a sword of some type and the third i have no idea. i'm definitely no expert though. i have the same set up as you (55 gal/15 x2 watt lights) and my plants are doing ok considering. my ferns haven't really grown but they little sprouts all over them and my anacharis and a.b. are growing pretty darn fast. now my micro sword is a different story, is growing very slow and it's due to low light i'm sure. i supplement my plants with fertilizer but no co2.

[bielbugs]

the lfs tested my water for phosphates, it was 1 ppm... is that good, bad, inbetween? I decided to get an air pump to provide some aeration. I also added some activated carbon back to my cartridges to see if that will help any.

[sergo]

i would say 1 ppm of phosphate is good. if you put carbon in your filters you will remove most of the trace elements that your plants will need to grow and then you will to have to supplement them right back in.

[cocoa_pleco]

cool new avatar sergo:1:

[sergo]

cool new avatar sergo:1:thanks. that one more like me.