# Brown Algae In The Tank



## milindsaraswala (Feb 28, 2009)

I have 8 Gallon Tank with 8 Neon Tetra and 3 plants. My water parameter is absolutely fine. My fish doing well. I am using Flourish liquid once a week.My substrate is ordinary small colouring stone. Now thing is that my plant was doing very well but suddenly it started becoming brown. No new leaves from 2 - 3 days. So I though may be because of algae so try to rub plant leave with my hand to see algae is stick but no it was plant leaves turn to brown. then I watch my wall is very little cover with algae and in middle of the tank when I see water looks clear but top layer water is brown and near the walls water is brown. So what I wanted to know is it brown algae. Did this will harm my plant how to rid of it !!! My friend told me that scrub wall with scrubber which we use for utensils. I wanted to know should I scrub the wall of tank when water is there or should I remove the water then scrub and feel tank with new water. I really confuse.


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

Heres how you get rid of brown algae:
Leave your lights on longer
Do more water changes to get rid of the excess Nitrates
Buy some otto cats


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

milindsaraswala said:


> I wanted to know should I scrub the wall of tank when water is there or should I remove the water then scrub and feel tank with new water. I really confuse.


mw:

You can scrub with the water in the tank but do a 35% WC and 25% weekly WC's thereafter.

Double dose with flourish for two weeks.

Decrease your feeding for two weeks.

TR


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## timmo2009 (Jun 10, 2009)

How come leaving your lights on longer gets rid of brown algae? I have always heard to leave lights on less, because they use the lights to grow, like the sun.


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## elvis332 (Dec 29, 2007)

Yea me too.I heard that light creates more algae?


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

Brown algae isn't green algae, it doesn't live off of light (chlorophyll). You need to leave your lights on around 8 to 10 hours a day because that is too much for brown algae to handle and it also won't let green algae get out of control.


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## timmo2009 (Jun 10, 2009)

okay, so because it doesn't have the color of green it doesn't live off light? It still is a plant, which demands photosynthesis. I'm not trying to argue, just trying to understand.


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

Plants don't live off of light only, too much light can kill plants too, thats my point, they need C02, and nutrients to live as well. The point is that brown algae doesn't live off of light, it lives off of access nutrients like nitrates. Normal lighting prohibits its growth, plants are different just like humans are.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

brown algae is diatoms. It needs light, but with more light, you are likely to get green algae instead. It need more light than the brown stuff and uses some of the same nutrients (nitrate). If you grow green algae, some fish will eat it, but most don't like brown. Brown will grown in really low light (like no light on the tank, just one in the room). 

I guess I would add more light and shrimp and hope the shrimp eat the algae.


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## timmo2009 (Jun 10, 2009)

okay i understand, I'm getting it in my 5 gallon tank in my dorm, and don't really have a means to clean it off right now except my hands. thats why i was pretty interested.


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