Brown algae?

[Kasey]

I noticed some of my synthetic corals turning brown last week. I changed the water and scrubbed all the coral clean. At first I thought it was just food that had settled on the coral.

This week the brown has gotten worse. It is now also on the plants and even a bit on the aquarium walls.

Will some type of algae treatment from the store cure this? Is it even algae?

I removed the plants/coral and changed the water. I threw away the ld filter and I am about to run to the store for algae treatment and new filters. Is this the proper thing to do?

The water paramters were all ideal.

It's a 10g with a Gouamis, molly, and platy.

Thank you so much for any advice.

 

[Bobnova]

Brown algea is usually Diatoms, which are actually little tiny animals of sorts.
They are silica based, so once they use up all the silica available in your tank, they should start to die off, and go away.


If you don't mind snails, toss a few in the tank (the "pest" snails work great), they will reproduce and grow like crazy eating the diatoms.
Then of course your left with a few dozen snails, which if your an anti-snail type person is rather of a problem. I like them personally, so i don't mind.

In two weeks, my snail population has gone from two, to maybe three or four dozen, mostly small, but there are a couple 1/4 inchers. The diatoms that used to cover the sides/back of the tank fairly solidly, are down to maybe 15% of their previous territory.

 

[momar]

Is your tank fairly newly set up? I had problems with brown algae in my 25gal for quite a while after setup but eventually it went away. I have also had a problem with it in another tank but it is going. Also my giant oto eats quite a bit of it. Try to get it off the plant leaves, as if it covers them for too long they die.

 

[LilLou]

I actually read some where that the glass on a new aquarium leaches the silicates into the water. I had the same problem with the brown stuff and it ran its course in about 2 weeks them I got some green stuff growing and now the tank looks like pea soup. The joys of a new tank.

If you really want to dose it there is Algae fix and Algae destroyer that both claim to be safe for planted tanks.

Lou

 

[rrkss]

It is part of the breakin process of any new aquarium. You will think that this algae nightmare can't get any worse when one morning you wake up and look at the tank and see that the algae ferry came and consumed all the brown algae.

 

[Kasey]

Thanks everyone! My tank is about three months old, I noticed the first bulid up about a week ago.

Thank you everyone for the advice!!