# Brown Fuzzy Algae Everwhere. Help



## aquascape1987 (23 Sep 2019)

Had my scale up and running for nearly 2 months now, and so far have managed to keep algae at bay. 

This week I appear to have a brown fuzzy cotton wool like substance growing over everything. Some photos below, but you can hardly see it in pictures. it is literally on everything, especially my HC Cuba carpet.

Anyone any ideas what this sounds like and how to resolve?


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## aquascape1987 (23 Sep 2019)




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## Kezzab (23 Sep 2019)

Hi, it'll be diatoms. Common in new set ups. Water changes and siphon out. It's usually a phase rather than chronic problem, though can sometimes be.
K


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## aquascape1987 (23 Sep 2019)

Im also getting some of the HC seeming to be darker in colour. Can’t tell whether it’s the plants or some kind of algae forming on it. You can see it in the pic above. What do you think?


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## itsBobby (30 Sep 2019)

aquascape1987 said:


> Im also getting some of the HC seeming to be darker in colour. Can’t tell whether it’s the plants or some kind of algae forming on it. You can see it in the pic above. What do you think?



Looks like it's struggling to me, not enough nutrients?


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## aquascape1987 (30 Sep 2019)

Well I’m dosing EI, so cant understand that. Also injected CO2 with lime green drop check. You think I should still increase ferts? The EI recipe is Aquarium plant food EI starter kit. It seems to have happened since I added fish. The tank was great prior to that, growing lush with algae under control


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## aquascape1987 (8 Oct 2019)

Can anyone please  give any further help or advice with this, as I’m losing the will to live with it. At the weekend I did 2 x 75 percent water changes, and mechanically removed as much of this brown fuzzy stuff as I could. I also trimmed my HC carpet down as well as attempts to mechanical remove it from the HC were literally impossible and it had never been trimmed before anyway. The HC carpet ended up getting damaged in my attempts to suck up the algae with a gravel vac and also trying to comb out the fuzz, so now looks a mess compared to how it did when it grew in. I’ve upped co2, and two days later, loads more of the stuff as in the pics below. Tested my water before I did the water changes suspecting that it may be because I have added fish and there had been a spike in ammonia, but the tests came back as a fully cycled tank. No ammonia, no nitrite and mild levels of nitrate. If anyone can shed any light or advice, I’d really 

 

 

 

 appreciate it. Feel like it’s completely ruining  my tank


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## Dolly Sprint 16v (8 Oct 2019)

Tank spec's would help: tank size - how many litres, what filter inc. flow rate, fertz regime, Co2 - yes or no, the big question "how much light T5 or LED and lighting period - how long. 

Im going to say your lighting is to bright and the lighting period to long.


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## aquascape1987 (8 Oct 2019)

I’ve got a TMC signature 60 x 45 x 30 high. Approx 81 litres. Lighting is twinstar 600 led. Dimmed to 75% intensity. Started at 50 percent and slowly increased up to 95 percent over 8 weeks but reduced back down to 75 when this started happening. Photo period is 6 hours. I had also increased this for 5 to 7 over the same period But reduced when this happened. Tank is injected with gas co2, which I have increased now so that the drop checker is lime green by lights on and almost yellow by lights off. CO2 comes on 4 hours before lights on and off 1 hour before lights off. Filter is Eheim 250 Thermo filter, with a 950 litre per hour rating. Ferts are EI which I have now doubled the dose of this.


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## Edvet (8 Oct 2019)

High light seems the cause ( it started while you where increasing light). Any chance on doing a pH profile and a full tank shot.
How are your maintenance schedules?


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## Tom Michael (8 Oct 2019)

Looks to be predominately on your carpet so may be associated with nutrients from substrate. Either way from your pick your plant growth looks good - especially from the tripartita, which is fast growing so likely to indicate quite quickly if there were any more underlying problems with the C02 / lighting balance..most commonly caused issues. What is your flow distribution like? are the gas bubbles reaching the substrate? was the carpet grown in as it is or did you dry start?

My general advice would be to add a load of fast growing easy stems and introduce amano shrimp and perhaps ottos, if you can get decent stock. And keep up the water changes as much as you can bear.


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## Siege (8 Oct 2019)

A full tank shot will help massively, I wonder if you do not have enough hungry plant mass whilst dosing full EI, now 1.5 full dose.


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## Kalum (8 Oct 2019)

As others have said I'd take a guess at your high light causing an imbalance for the plant mass

Clean out your filter and up water changes for a few weeks and drop the light, go back to where you were having success and get stability again


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## aquascape1987 (8 Oct 2019)

@Edvet -  maintenance involves a 70 percent water change every week. I started off in the initial few weeks doing 50 percent twice weekly. Could maybe do a PH profile at the weekend, what is your thought process on this?

@Tom Michael - the photo is probably a bit deceiving as the fuzzy stuff doesn’t seem to show up well on photos. But it’s actually all over the carpet, and all amongst the other plants as well, not just the carpet. Growth was really good with hardly any algae for the first 8 weeks. The only thing I can recall changing was that I added decorative fish just before this happened. 12 cardinal tetra and 6 galaxy rasbora. Prior to that I only had Amano shrimp x 15, and ottos x 6.

I’ve added some shots of the full tank now vs how it was only 2 or three weeks ago below.

@Siege - I’ve actually reduced the plant mass since I attempted to mechanically remove this stuff. Took out a load of Ludwigia senegalensis I had growing at the back as it was impossible to remove the stuff from the stems. I also trimmed the carpet for the same reason, as trying to remove it with a brush and siphon was just tearing the carpet up.

@Kalum - I get your thoughts on the light and algae issues but I grew this tank and built light up slowly to 90 percent intensity with no issues at all, until all of a sudden this stuff took over in the space of about 3 days after adding fish.


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## aquascape1987 (8 Oct 2019)

21/9/19


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## aquascape1987 (8 Oct 2019)

8/10/19


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## aquascape1987 (8 Oct 2019)

Also, flow seems good. I’ve got the glass jet at the back left corner(as you look at the tank) pumping water forward and to the right, hitting the front glass around the middle. Plants seem to be moving all over on the flow.. CO2 is distributed via an in-line diffuser on the filter intake hose and is generally dissolved by the time it reaches the tank. Although now I’ve upped it, a lot seems to be belched out periodically as bubbles.


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## Edvet (9 Oct 2019)

Looks like the rest is growing wel.
pH profile will show the effectiveness of the CO2. Start with measuring from before CO2 on hourly till CO2 stops.
Also i would add amanoshrimp and some snails as cleanup crew.
Other than that keep cleaning and changing water. I would add a few floaters to ascertain fert levels("Darrel's Duck Weed Index")


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## Siege (9 Oct 2019)

Perhaps try moving the outlet to alongside the inlet at the front.

Cherry shrimp will be good also.

Defo turn the temp down to 22-23 degrees. That will help massively.


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## Siege (9 Oct 2019)

Ps. 

Maybe change to a lily pipe style outlet also, it’ll give you a wider movement spread and surface agitation (oxygen).


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