# Brown Algae advice needed!!!



## EA James (14 Dec 2019)

I’ve got some brown algae issues on my plants and a little on the glass of my tank. 
I've been told on a fish forum on Facebook to cut down on ferts by 3/4 and do 2 20% water changes a week as it could be silicates in my tap water that are causing this issue.
Is this good advice? I’m not so sure!
Slowly but surely it’s starting to cover all the plants so I need to get it sorted
Tank is an Evolution Aqua 1200, 330 litres. Fluval FX4 filter with an eheim pre filter. Aquasky light on full spectrum for 6 hours every day, dosing tnc complete 15ml twice a week
Here’s a few pics of the problem


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## EA James (14 Dec 2019)




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## EA James (14 Dec 2019)




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## EA James (14 Dec 2019)




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## EA James (15 Dec 2019)

Anyone???


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## jaypeecee (15 Dec 2019)

Hi @EA James 

In your photographs, the colour of the algae (on my PC) is black, not brown. If it was brown, then that would point to diatoms, which occur when silicates are excessive.

JPC


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## EA James (15 Dec 2019)

Hi @jaypeecee 
It does look black in the pics, it is actually quite dark in real but it is brown.
I think where it’s building up it’s making it look darker, really starting to lose patience with it now
Just about to do a big clean and water change to try and improve things


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## jaypeecee (15 Dec 2019)

Hi @EA James 

Are you able to reduce the lighting intensity, i.e. is it dimmable?

JPC


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## EA James (15 Dec 2019)

jaypeecee said:


> Hi @EA James
> 
> Are you able to reduce the lighting intensity, i.e. is it dimmable?
> 
> JPC


Yes it’s a Fluval Aquasky so I can adjust pretty much everything! 
Do you think the light is too intense?


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## jaypeecee (15 Dec 2019)

Hi @EA James 

Aquarium lighting is a topic that interests me greatly. One of the compromises that we have to make is that light intensity cannot easily be measured. And what appears bright to us may not appear bright to plants and vice versa. So, it's a bit of a guessing game for most aquarists. As I understand it, light is like the conductor of an orchestra. The conductor controls the pace of the music and the instruments have to keep up. The instruments are analogous to the nutrients/fertilizers that the plants require to flourish. So, increasing/reducing tank light intensity increases/reduces the plant nutrient requirement (including CO2). It's all a question of getting the balance right. If I've got this wrong, then someone will be sure to correct me.

The upshot of all this is that, if there is a surplus of nutrients, then algae may develop. So, cutting down on the ferts may indeed be the way to go. That's my two penn'orth but someone with more expertise will no doubt be along to help you.

JPC


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## JoshP12 (15 Dec 2019)

EA James said:


> Yes it’s a Fluval Aquasky so I can adjust pretty much everything!
> Do you think the light is too intense?



Aside from my recent debate as to whether or not I reduce lighting or up CO2, BEFORE this point I had my lights on 100% and had algae like crazy. I dialed it back to 75% and with appropriate husbandry practices the algae did not come back (I was only dealing with glass algae and hair algae at the time. 



jaypeecee said:


> Hi @EA James
> 
> In your photographs, the colour of the algae (on my PC) is black, not brown. If it was brown, then that would point to diatoms, which occur when silicates are excessive.
> 
> JPC



I second this, generally when our tanks are settling, in those first stages we can get a brown fuzz/diatom algae forming due to the excess silicates in the water (once they are done though, the colony dies off). 

Here is a good link: https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/algae-problems-read-this.58460/


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## EA James (15 Dec 2019)

As I understand it, light is like the conductor of an orchestra. The conductor controls the pace of the music and the instruments have to keep up. The instruments are analogous to the nutrients/fertilizers that the plants require to flourish. So, increasing/reducing tank light intensity increases/reduces the plant nutrient requirement (including CO2)

What a wonderful way to put it!! Makes perfect sense too, trying to find the balance is harder than I first thought!


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## EA James (15 Dec 2019)

@Plants234 thank you for that, I’ve turned the white light down to 75%, should I do this with all colours?
I thought it was diatoms but my tanks been running for 5 months now so I thought they would start to disappear but it seems to be getting worse
Any advice on maintenance moving forwards?


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## JoshP12 (15 Dec 2019)

Hi @EA James, I am glad it was helpful. 

Here is a good video on weekly maintenance: .

Side note, on some of my anubias near the top of my tank I have something similar and it is because I am still trying to find the lighting balance. 

Cheers,
Josh


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## EA James (15 Dec 2019)

@Plants234 i like to think I’ve got quite a good weekly regime anyway I’m just curious if there’s more I should be doing at the moment to get the tank sorted? Maybe an extra water change mid week or something like that?
Thank you


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## dw1305 (16 Dec 2019)

Hi all,





EA James said:


> water changes a week as it could be silicates in my tap water that are causing this issue.





jaypeecee said:


> then that would point to diatoms, which occur when silicates are excessive.


Have a look at <"What's this....">. 





EA James said:


> Do you think the light is too intense?


Looking at the _Anubias _I think it maybe.

I like to have a floating plant in the tank. The advantages are they aren't CO2, or light, limited and the leaves are above the surface, so they don't collect algae. 

I called this approach the <"Duckweed Index">, but I now use Amazon Frogbit (_Limnobium laevigatum_) as my "Duckweed".  You can also use the floating plant as a <"net curtain">, which removes some of the light intensity uncertainty (that @jaypeecee mentions). 

If you have poor growth in our floating plant you know it is a mineral nutrition issue, because you've removed light and CO2 from the equation. 





rusticdr said:


> Regarding the duckweed index: Massive massive help. If any of u have any doubts whether u have issues either due to co2 or nutrient def.. this is a life saver. the reason for my frogbits to die off earlier was not due to high surface flow.


cheers Darrel


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## JoshP12 (16 Dec 2019)

@EA James, 

I have never beat some of these algaes before so I will leave the true advice to the experienced! I would say though, another water change mid-week with close to the same parameters and temperature may remove free algae spores, helping us! 

Cheers,
Josh


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## EA James (16 Dec 2019)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,Have a look at <"What's this....">. Looking at the _Anubias _I think it maybe.
> 
> I like to have a floating plant in the tank. The advantages are they aren't CO2, or light, limited and the leaves are above the surface, so they don't collect algae.
> 
> ...



Hi Darrel, 
Ok that’s great, I’ll get some floaters asap then. 
I’ll keep a close eye on them and see what happens. I like this idea it’s like a natural monitor! 
I’ve turned the lights down to 40% so I’ll see if things improve, fingers crossed 
Also am I right in thinking I should still continue to dose my ferts like normal?
Thanks for your help


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## dw1305 (16 Dec 2019)

Hi all, 





EA James said:


> Also am I right in thinking I should still continue to dose my ferts like normal?


I probably would at the moment, it is usually best not to change too many things at the same time.

I <"dose fertiliser"> based on the size of leaf rosette and leaf colour of the Frogbit. Other will carry on with <"regular dosing">. This is what really healthy Frogbit looks like, mine never looks that healthy. 



 

cheers Darrel


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## EA James (16 Dec 2019)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all, I probably would at the moment, it is usually best not to change too many things at the same time.
> 
> I <"dose fertiliser"> based on the size of leaf rosette and leaf colour of the Frogbit. Other will carry on with <"regular dosing">. This is what really healthy Frogbit looks like, mine never looks that healthy.
> 
> ...


Ok will do, one last thing..
Would you advice to spread the dosing to daily or all in one go?
To me I think it should be daily so the plants feed regularly but I’m not the expert!
Thanks again


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## dw1305 (17 Dec 2019)

Hi all, 





EA James said:


> Would you advice to spread the dosing to daily or all in one go?
> To me I think it should be daily so the plants feed regularly


Daily would be best, this is why people <"build dosators etc">.  I wouldn't be too bothered about it if you are short of time? Weekly is still going to work.

cheers Darrel


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## EA James (17 Dec 2019)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all, Daily would be best, this is why people <"build dosators etc">.  I wouldn't be too bothered about it if you are short of time? Weekly is still going to work.
> 
> cheers Darrel


Times not an issue really, I mean I’m home from work same time every day all week so it won’t be a problem. 
I’ll start tonight then, I’m feeling quite optimistic now with the help I’ve received on here which is great as I was starting to feel slightly disheartened about this ‘issue’
Once I’m on top of things and it starts to balance out will the diatoms slowly disappear or do they need to be manually removed?
Thanks, James


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## dw1305 (17 Dec 2019)

Hi all, 





EA James said:


> Once I’m on top of things and it starts to balance out will the diatoms slowly disappear


Normally they decline of their own accord. 

The only Diatom have ever re-appear in an established tank is the filamentous _Synedra/Fragilaria_ type (from <"What is this?">)




 

cheers Darrel


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## EA James (17 Dec 2019)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all, Normally they decline of their own accord.
> 
> The only Diatom have ever re-appear in an established tank is the filamentous _Synedra/Fragilaria_ type (from <"What is this?">)
> 
> ...


Ok that’s good to know.
Thank you for your help Darrel, much appreciated


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