What really causes brown algae?

viking155

viking155

AC Members
May 20, 2008
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Philadelphia
I am new to this so here it is. I have a 45 gallon freshwater tank which has been up for about 5 months now. For about a month I have been getting brown algae on plants and bottom of the tank on the glass. Then after doing water change the water is green on top of that. I read and read about brown algae and I am still lost. Some say it is the light, I have the light on for about 7 hours a day, not enough? I do not have any real plants yet. Ammo, nitrites, nitrates and pH are good. Now about a week ago I found out about phosphates, this gets better and better lol. They are at the highest the can be!!! I have Phos Zorb in my filter for about a week now and no drop in phospates. I am running Penguin BIO-Wheel 350 which is ok but I just purchased Fluval 305 but it will be here in couple of days. Sorry about the length of this cry for help. Please help.

:help:
 
Shouldn't this be in the freshwater forum? Anyway, brown algae is caused by a number of things.. light, flow, food, type of water used (tap), etc. In a freshwater tank I always just bought a pleco or 2 to clean up the plastic plants. I don't know if it is possible in a FW tank to completely rid it of brown algae on plastic plants. It has been many many years since I did FW but I do remember always dealing with that problem and usually just took the plants out and cleaned them off in the sink periodically.
 
Sounds like you do have a an excess of nutients in the tank. Phosphates do contribute, but phosphates alone will not produce the amount of algae you're describing. There's gotta be something else going on.

What are your tanks parametes - amm, nitrites, nitrates, phos?
Is your tank getting any sunlight through a window during the day?
What kind of substrate do you have?
How is the tank stocked?
Do you plan on getting live plants?
 
brown algae is better known as diatoms.

most of the time when light is involved, it's too much.

does your tank get any sun? also.. 5 months is not that long for a tank. nearly all tanks experience a diatom outbreak in the first year, and most of those get rid of it eventually on their own as the tank matures.
 
Actually, algae is always present. When one or more of its triggers goes over a certain minimum level we experience an outbreak (which is really a population explosion). While we find it annoying, we perhaps should welcome this rather than the alternatives - a polluted tank. Algae is one of natures ways of reducing pollutants. The potential list of outbreak contributors includes: nitrates (any form), phosphates, silica, and, of course, the required energy to drive all this comes from lighting, artificial or natural.

While many algae outbreaks are experienced by newcomers to the hobby and are the result of overfeeding, diatom blooms can (and most likely will) be experienced any time a newly constructed tank is placed in use. The fine soluble silica at the glass/water interface dissolves and feeds the diatoms.How they can feed on silica, I do not know. I have not been able to get any of them to explain it to me.

This type outbreak clears if no other nutrient is present in sufficient quantities to sustain it.

I use MTS to contain algae growth since I like to feed heavily. Periodically, I go away on business for a few days and return to find the tank spotless. It usually does not get bad anyway but after a couple days of not being heavily fed (my wife gives 2 minimal daily feedings when I am away) the tank looks even better. The MTS population is self regulating. When there is a sufficient quantity of food the population grows, lower food supplies and less spawning of the MTS. Also, every once in a while I remove a bunch of the MTS which lets the population self renew keeping the remainder strong and happy.

Nature has its own methods of cleanup. Unfortunately, in the glass/acrylic boxes we call aquaria, the vastness of nature is not present to enable water purification and pollutant dillution. Therefore we need to regular partial water changes and know what is in our replacement water so we can control the toilets our fish call home.

Charlie
 
The tank is not set up in direct sunlight. I used to do 25% water changes every 3 weeks, now I do it every 2. I just did a water change a couple of days ago. Ammo-0, Nitrite-0, Nitrate-0, pH-7.2, best part phosphates 10ppm, highest on the scale. Phos-Zorb not helping, it has been in my filter for over a week. Fluval 305 coming tomorrow, I bought media for it already. I am not fond of using chemicals in the tank, but I have no idea what else to do. Brown algae showed up 4 months after the initial set up.
 
viking155 said:
The tank is not set up in direct sunlight. I used to do 25% water changes every 3 weeks, now I do it every 2. I just did a water change a couple of days ago. Ammo-0, Nitrite-0, Nitrate-0, pH-7.2, best part phosphates 10ppm, highest on the scale. Phos-Zorb not helping, it has been in my filter for over a week. Fluval 305 coming tomorrow, I bought media for it already. I am not fond of using chemicals in the tank, but I have no idea what else to do. Brown algae showed up 4 months after the initial set up.
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that still isnt frequent enough. you should be doing water changes every week.
 
0's across the board ... planted tank ... It might be that some CO2 and fertz would help the plants outcompete the algae.

My suggestion to you at this point is to post to the planted tank section. Increased water changes are always a good thing, but if you can get your plants with the right balance of light, nutrients and CO2 that would help too. (I'd offer to help you out with that, but I'm really not a planted tank expert.)

And, stop stressing on the phosphates. Really, they alone are not the cause. And even if the phos-zorb was working, it probably wouldn't eliminate the diatoms.
 
I was thinking about the 0 nitrates reading too, but the OP stated the tank doesn't have any real plants. It seems to me it would have to be either a lot of algae to soak up that much nitrate, or something may be amiss with the test. I have two heavily planted tanks, and do at least weekly changes and still read some nitrates consistently.
 
Dang it, it's late ... I even went back I thought I read that he's got plants. WOOPS!!

But, erm, yea, what you said!
 
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