Brown Algie

Is your tank new?This is common in new setups.The algae is harmless.It usually goes away on it's own,or if you want to speed up the process,get a Chinese algae eater.

I had a bad algae outbreak, here is my post with what everyone else told me to do to fix it.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63630

hope it helps.

When I had some brown algae in a 10 gallon tanks, a small pleco got rid of it in a matter of hours.

If thinking of a Chinese Algae Eater get a Siamese algae eater instead. SAE's are a good long term tank resident. Most CAE's are not.

The otocinclus s[. attacks brown algae well. get a few and see what happens. They are in the pleco family. Bristlenoses also do well with brown algae.

Brown diatoms are usually associated with a new tank and will generally go away on their own. Other ways to help "encourage" it to go away are reducing the amount of light, making sure you're not overfeeding, etc. One of the primary causes is too many nutrients, particularly phosphates, in the water. If it's a real problem that just keeps going on, then you've probably got a phosphate issue.

In my case, the phosphates are added through the water changes from my tap--nothing I can do about that short of getting bottled water or an RO. Those options are too expensive for something I consider to be only a minor nuisance, so I've gone the filtration route. There are various types of media you can add to your filter to take out the phosphates. I use Phos-Zorb for one week about once a month, and that seems to work great.

How long has your tank been set-up? the brown algae you are seeing is probably Diatoms, and are very common in new tanks, they feed off of silicates in your tank, and as all they silicates are gone from your tank, so will the Diatoms.

Have you had an outbreak before? If not, sounds like it could just be part of the new tank process. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Regardless, it won't hurt the fish -- it's just unsightly (particularly if you have white gravel, like me).

If it bothers you, as a simple first solution, I'd recommend reducing the amount of light. How long do you have the lights on right now? Any exposure to natural sunlight?