Brown Algae growing on plants?

[The_Wolfman]

Hey I have a question...I have recently discovered brown algae growing on some of my plants that are in my 3 gallon aquarium. I haven't had a lot of experience in dealing with algae so i was wondering if anyone could help...

[Bravofleet4]

People will be able to help you more if you give some more details about your tank. What kind of lighting do you have, are you doing DIY CO2, do you use fertilizers? How many fish are you keeping? What kind of plants do you have? How often are you doing water changes? What are your water parameters and etc.

[The_Wolfman]

I have a Eclipse 3 Gallon with 1 betta in there. I have 2 of those banana(?) plants and one amazon swordtail...i bought a bottle of Seachem Flourish Supplement that I give the plants once a week and I usually do a 50 percent water change every two weeks. I hope this helps!

[DGalt]

how much light do you have over the tank?

[The_Wolfman]

Im pretty sure its a 6 watt fluorescent bulb but i could be wrong...

[Phyroath]

As I've learned from people at AC (Pls. correct me if I am wrong - I was a long term diatom fighter):
- New tank normally got diatoms from excess silicate from the glass - is your tank a
newly setup one tank?
- If high level of silicate in the tape water.
- Extra terrestrial objects such as certain metal

Solutions as I noted down:

- High light and CO2 would possibly driving diatoms away.
- Remove any extra terrestrial objects
- Clean the tank, filter etc.
- Get AE fish

Lighting for a 3g tank can be easily upgraded - 13W CFL would do over 4wpg.

[The_Wolfman]

Yeah the tank is probably a month old now...thanks for the info, i guess it could be caused by a number of things?

[Bravofleet4]

if it's brown stuff that's growing on your plants and tanks but easily wipes away with a wet paper towel, it's diatoms. Those will usually go away on their own as your tank stabilizes. Don't worry too much.

otherwise if it's fluffy, hair-like or incredibly hard to get off then you're in more trouble and should ask other ppl to identify

[jpappy789]

The general conclusion is that it's caused by silicates, usually leached from new tanks, as diatoms need silica to build their cell walls. Other theories are out there but in most cases it goes away on it's own anyways.