srry if help sounded urgent but i was wondering how i can get rid of this brown algae stuff or maybe brown diatoms to stop growing on my tank. mainly the filter and my beloved plants. i currently am running 5X26 watt cfls and two actinics (for looks) for 10 hrs. and am putting lots of diy co2 . its a 55gallon tank medium planted. i have been running the tank for about 2months.help please i hate the brown stuff.:eek3:
Help! The brown stuff
- Thread starter mancas24
- Start date
is this a glass tank?
typical with new glass tanks to have a battle with brown algae(aka diatoms)
it usually goes away on it's own when the tank matures.
typical with new glass tanks to have a battle with brown algae(aka diatoms)
it usually goes away on it's own when the tank matures.
yea it is glass in fact i just posted pics of them but i scrubbed all the brown algae off. how long before it stops growing at optimum tank care
Yeah, it is highly annoyuing, but theres nothing you can do about it except keep it wiped off and wait for it to run its course.. The silicates in your new tank are feeding it, when they have been consumed (when your tank matures) it will go away on its own.
Be sure to vacuum the tank regularly; otherwise the silicates in the shells of dead diatoms will be available to the new generations. The only tank I had diatom problems in was an acrylic tank, but had chert (silicate) substrate; it took about 8 weeks for the diatoms to clear up.
Some fish will eat diatoms, but generally not fast enough to eliminate them.
Some fish will eat diatoms, but generally not fast enough to eliminate them.
I like the look of slate in my tank so I have about 80lbs in my 125. The downside is slate is mostly composed of silica. Yep.. constant brown algae problem. It's slowly decreasing as time goes on. It's slowed down by 50% in the past year. The key that I've found to keeping it under control is bi-weekly scrubbing and a couple of Brig's. Kind of a pain, but as the brig's get larger my scrubbing gets less. 
I'm tempted to toss a few of the Malaysian Trumpet snails into the tank.... but then I'm pretty sure I'll have an out of control population explosion.
If the silica is only coming from the glass weekly scrubbing and large biweekly (>%50) water changes will help speed up the "aging" process.
I'm tempted to toss a few of the Malaysian Trumpet snails into the tank.... but then I'm pretty sure I'll have an out of control population explosion.
If the silica is only coming from the glass weekly scrubbing and large biweekly (>%50) water changes will help speed up the "aging" process.
my tank has a pool filter sand substrate (i.e. sillica sand) and it took about 8 months, a bunch of ludwigia, and flourish Excel before it started to slow down. now, it is pretty much nonexsistant exept for a combination of brown and green algea on the output of my C-360 and on a piece of granite i have in the tank.
thanks, i do have slate in the tank so that could be 1 reason, but i also have some ludwigia but how does that help