brownish redish stuff on plants

dereks

dereks

AC Members
Mar 7, 2006
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Hey, I have a 37 gallon with 53 or 54 watts of 6700k light on it. It's freshwater and I'm dosing tiny bits of carbon supplement. I keep the lights on for about 10 hours a day. My sword plant and wisteria is getting this brownish redish looking junk on it. If I had to guess I'd say it's a type of algae but does this description jump out to anyone right away? I'm assuming I should start by cutting the lights back to 8 hours?

What does everybody think?
 
Probably diatoms, common with new tanks. It might help to cut down the light period, and doing more water changes to try to get things balanced out. Not actually an algae...but for all intents and purposes, this is the "brown algae" you read about. Certain fish (such as otos) like to graze on it.
 
It's been set up for a while, a couple years. I had hygrophila in there with my discus and it all died off. I moved my discus to a larger tank and dropped the temp in my 37 gallon so I could use the cooler water to have a planted aquarium. I added a sword plant and a few wisteria plants, now this stuff is all over them. Haven't checked nitrates yet but read there could be a connection. What are some of your thoughts?
 
It sounds like diatoms to me as well. Changing the water more often would definately help.
 
Thanks. And I'm assuming cutting the lights back should help? If I check the nitrates when I get home and they're high, is it likely that's contributing as well?
 
Nitrates and phosphates are definitely contributing factors. Change water more often and maybe run some high quality carbon, like Chemi-Pure. It sounds like you have too much light and too few plants, also...either take out one of the bulbs (if you can) or add more plants, I'd say. Hygrophila is an invasive weed, so make sure to keep it out of the waterways (don't flush it down the toilet, etc.)
 
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