Brown algea on plants are driving me crazy!

[kurly]

Wish I could cruise this site more often but it's a little more difficult due to my busy schedule. Thought I would hop on and give a little update.

Fishguy125.
I'm not aware of a spike in boron in my water supply. I posted in the past that the only tank I was having brown algae in is my main tank. The other two tanks are crystal clear with vibrant green healthy plants so I've been a little confused. I use the same water supply for all tanks in my house.

I did notice that the lighting for some reason wasn't as bright as it has been in the past (even though both bulbs were recently replaced) I took out the colormax bulb and added another 6700 T5 bulb in addition to the one I already have in there and immediately the tank brightened up. Not too bright though as I know that can cause green algae.

With this last water change six days ago, I swished my media really good, cleaned the substrate and also took out all the anubias nana petites and gave them a quick bleach bath. (thouroughly rinsed them with fresh water and prime before putting them back in the tank.) The other plants I couldn't bleach dip so I meticuously wiped every leaf off to the best of my ability. Couldn't get every speck of brown algae off but I did get quite a lot of it off the leaves.

So far the tank is bright,clean and sparkly. The plants are green again and the brown algae hasn't returned just yet. I also am cutting back on the amount of flakes I feed my fish by being the ONLY one to feed them. I was asking Hubby and 16 year old son to feed them for me sometimes when I wasn't able to and for some reason I think they may have been overfeeding.

Brown algae is a very ugly sight to behold so I'll keep an eye on things over the next couple of weeks and pray that it doesn't return

If by chance it does, I'll come back and try out the other posted suggestions.

[kurly]

Maybe there are silicates in your water supply causing some diatoms. I get that every once in a while were I live, but lucky for me it never lasts too long

Running some Chemi Pure Elite can help remove the silicates.

But all of this is guessing on my part right now. Could you post of pic of what this algae looks like. That would help

Okay..I just tested my water for phosphates and the reading is 1.0 from the tank and it also tests at 1.0 from the tap. According to the kit instruction it should read as 0.

I also bought one unit of Chemi-Pure when I got the phosphate testing kit. So, if I add the unit of Chemi-Pure to the tank, will that lower the phosphate to 0 and help with the algae issue I am having?

I've never added any chemicals to my tank before because it concerns me to do so but since you mentioned it I thought I would give it a try if I'm understanding it correctly.

I changed the water a couple of days ago and just checked the parameters again. Readings are all 0 including Nitrate because water was just changed.

I'll ask further questions about the chemi-pure after I get a response.

[~firefly~]

1.0 is pretty high! Normally, in a planted tank you want about 0.25 for the plants.

Not sure what you can do to get them down other than load your tank with lots and lots of plants - not a very good suggestion if you don't want a planted tank.

[Cermet]

As I tell most people with this issue - an algae scrubber; you will then have to watch the nitrates closely because they will tend to go to zero. This will require a fert with nitrates. But will tend to solve algae and phosphate issues.

[Cliff]

So, if I add the unit of Chemi-Pure to the tank, will that lower the phosphate to 0 and help with the algae issue I am having?

I have only used chemi-pure to remove silicates, which I find it does a good job of. So if you have daitoms, that will help to remove them regardless of your phosphate levels as diatoms can not live without silicates. I have never chmi-pure it for phosphates, but the manufacture does state it will remove them. I guess you try it as extra water changes won't help your phosphate levels right now

You also got some pretty good suggestion above as well

[kurly]

As I tell most people with this issue - an algae scrubber; you will then have to watch the nitrates closely because they will tend to go to zero. This will require a fert with nitrates. But will tend to solve algae and phosphate issues.

What do you mean by algae scrubber? I was thinking about the tool that I use to clean the tank when you said algae scrubber.

[kurly]

1.0 is pretty high! Normally, in a planted tank you want about 0.25 for the plants.

Not sure what you can do to get them down other than load your tank with lots and lots of plants - not a very good suggestion if you don't want a planted tank.

I already have a tank full of live plants. Gotta leave my fishies some swimming room

[Cliff]

The algae scrubber that Cermet was talking about is detialed in the below link

http://algaescrubber.net/forums/show...cs-The-Summary

There are many types/approaches to algae srubbers, the above one is the most efficient one

[Cermet]

Algae scrubbers are very small, in tank units that grow algae that consumes nitrates and phosphates (I have a picture of one in my Discus thread titled "Reinstalling a UGF". They do not compete with regular bio-filters. If you are interested, view that photo - it stopped my BGA attacks. They can be too effective and it is possible you might have to dose nitrates for plants when they are running - they are very useful for people like me who have nitrates in their tap or like you with phosphates. For the average person with plants, might be an issue.