I have a 10 gallon tank (cycled for months). I thought I would try live plants, so I added a java fern. Within 8 days I now have some brown algae forming on glass, decorations, etc. I have read that it is not serious, and you can just scrape it off. Will this algae stop once the fern is established??? Wondering if I made a mistake trying to introduce live plants...............
brown algae in new planted tank
- Thread starter denali1234
- Start date
2 15 watt flourescent bulbs. It gets lots of natural lighting, lights are on a timer for 7 hours a day......
Typically brown algae, diatoms appear first in a tank. Usually followed by green algae, spot algae. Once the green algae appears the diatoms will die off. If there is not enough light the green algae won't appear and the diatoms will persist. They need almost no light at all.
Maybe you imported some on the fern but most likely they would appear at some point. They feed on the excess nutrients in the tank. They are very interesting little things. Their exoskeleton is essentially glass. There are thousands of kinds and they are found worldwide, everywhere.
Under the right conditions they will practically smother everything else in a tank. They are easily removed with wiping. Otocinclus will eat them. They will clean a tank almost completely in a few days.
Most of the low light plants don't help that much because they grow slowly. Some of the faster growing plants will help suck the nutrients out of the water. It depends on how much light you have.. Try some others, see what will grow.
More water changes and more frequent cleaning will help. What you need is to balance the nutrients in the tank with the plants. So, plant more plants.
Maybe you imported some on the fern but most likely they would appear at some point. They feed on the excess nutrients in the tank. They are very interesting little things. Their exoskeleton is essentially glass. There are thousands of kinds and they are found worldwide, everywhere.
Under the right conditions they will practically smother everything else in a tank. They are easily removed with wiping. Otocinclus will eat them. They will clean a tank almost completely in a few days.
Most of the low light plants don't help that much because they grow slowly. Some of the faster growing plants will help suck the nutrients out of the water. It depends on how much light you have.. Try some others, see what will grow.
More water changes and more frequent cleaning will help. What you need is to balance the nutrients in the tank with the plants. So, plant more plants.