# Brown algae in cichlid tank



## austinroberts23 (Jan 25, 2012)

There is brown hair algae (I believe) starting to be pretty noticeable in my 55g cichlid tank. What's the best way to combat this? I have a Chinese algae eater in there but he doesn't even touch it. Here's a pic to show what it looks like. 










It's all over the rocks, decor, and filter equipment


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

what kind of cichlids ?
algae is usually from too much food and/or too much light...if you are keeping mbuna quit feeding them and let them eat the algae..


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

looks a bit like bba (black bottle brush) or something like it. Nothing likes to eat that.


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## austinroberts23 (Jan 25, 2012)

Yeah this is black brush algae. Seems to be no real way to kill this stuff other than letting it get eaten. I didn't feed yesterday and hey still didn't seem to bother the stuff. Maybe I'll pull the cae and replace with a sae?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

some people squirt it with flourish excel or hydrogen peroxide or take affected stuff out and scrub it or bleach it. The fish won't mind, its just ugly.


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## austinroberts23 (Jan 25, 2012)

I tried scrubbing. But not much luck. Im going to try just leaving it for now. Scrubbing a rock or two with a metal brush every week or so


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## blindkiller85 (Jan 8, 2011)

austinroberts23 said:


> I tried scrubbing. But not much luck. Im going to try just leaving it for now. Scrubbing a rock or two with a metal brush every week or so


Not the greatest idea considering the metal brush will wear away your rock and create a very porous rock (even more than before). Sure it will work, but you're creating more surfaces for algae to grow on. I'd much prefer to use a toothbrush. Non-abrasive and still gets the job done of removing algae from deco in the tank.


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## BroderickMi (Mar 30, 2012)

Seems to be no real way to kill this stuff other than letting it get eaten.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

hydrogen peroxide in a syringe directed right at it, so you get just the algae- works well to my understanding.


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## austinroberts23 (Jan 25, 2012)

Peroxide IN the tank? Seems...iffy?


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

No it is NOT iffy I assure you. You can also use it when you have a power outage to assist with oxygenation that is lost by not having the filter on. You do not want to dump the bottle in there. You wan to spray the algae with it. It is FINE.

If you don't believe me, then believe Loha... he's like 100 and has been doing this for at least 80 of those years LOL.


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## austinroberts23 (Jan 25, 2012)

Very interesting!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

The dose is very important. Too much can kill everything in a tank. Some pools are using it.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

for sure! The syringe part would be easy to contain within acceptable limits. The oxygenating when power is out needs to be more carefully watched. You wouldn't need much for either.


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