# Brown Algae



## Rider14 (Aug 1, 2009)

Hello again! Tank is looking good, two of the platies and a molly are getting ridiculously fat, making me think they are females about to give birth....or they just love to eat.

Anyway, all of the fake plants and the walls of the tank are starting to get brown algae growth. Also have some green algae growth in the water.

I am told the green algae is no biggie, just keep changing the water.

But the brown algae - what do I do to stop it? It's even beginning to show traces of growth on the gravel, not just the fake plants.

Anything I can do?

I did add a bag of phosphor remover or something my buddy gave me in the filter area, but who knows?

Would love some advice on the brown algae. Search function not working at the moment, so if it's a repeat I apologize.

- Dan


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

throw in a snail-- mine seem to like brown algae.
Interestingly I only get brown algae in a tank that has no light other than room.


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## Rider14 (Aug 1, 2009)

mousey said:


> throw in a snail-- mine seem to like brown algae.
> Interestingly I only get brown algae in a tank that has no light other than room.



mine is not in direct sun either - as for snails, what's ok and what isnt? and do they really make a difference?

- Dan


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## Blue Cray (Oct 19, 2007)

Get an algae magnet for the sides so you dont have to stick your hand in there all the time and just rinse off the plants. I havent found a way to control it but i really dont have a problem with it, it just grows on the glass and rocks. A BN pleco would work to get rid of it, SAE's seem to work for me.


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## Rider14 (Aug 1, 2009)

Blue Cray said:


> Get an algae magnet for the sides so you dont have to stick your hand in there all the time and just rinse off the plants. I havent found a way to control it but i really dont have a problem with it, it just grows on the glass and rocks. A BN pleco would work to get rid of it, SAE's seem to work for me.


I've got a magnet scraper for the sides, it's the plants and gravel I have a problem with. 

Are Bristlenose plecos hard to find? Is it cool to have just one? And if so, will they jive with my 2 Cory Cats?

And how big do they get? Are some smaller than others?

Help a brother out!

- Dan


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

BN's and cories do just fine together- just make sure you put in enough sinking food for both. My BN's chase the cories away from the shrimp pellets and carry the algae tablet back to their logs for eating.
I found I have to leave my one BN a bit on the hungry side to get him to clean the glass- he is a lazy fish compared to the other.
Since I have small (20 gallon) tanks I only keep one BN pleco in each tank. They are both males so they might get too territorial.
One of mine comes out in the day, the other mainly at night.
Different personalities altogether.

I still prefer a few snails to clean plants and gravel- they go around each small stone.. 
Since I have a few ramshorn and common pond snails in my goldfish tank I no longer have to scrape the sides or stones of any algae.
Small snails do a good job of keeping anubias free of black algae too. Pleco and SAe won't touch it.


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## jchutch (Sep 8, 2009)

Rider14 said:


> Hello again! Tank is looking good, two of the platies and a molly are getting ridiculously fat, making me think they are females about to give birth....or they just love to eat.
> 
> Anyway, all of the fake plants and the walls of the tank are starting to get brown algae growth. Also have some green algae growth in the water.
> 
> ...


Hey Rider,

Yes Brown Algae is unsightful and I will give you what I did when it went out of control in my 20 long tank. Again this is what I did to eliminate it without changing gravel, decor etc. 

I first added some low light plants to the aquarium. Plants like Amazon Swords, Wisteria, Java Moss (on a piece of Driftwood) and Anacharis. I know this can get expensive so I added the plants over a period of 2 weeks, but the Wisteria and Java Moss really take out the excess nutrients in aquarium water which the brown algae likes. 

Secondly, I bought a clown pleco and 2 ottocinclus fish. These dudes went right to work on the problem.

Third, I did gravel vacuum water changes every other day (about 25%) for about 2 weeks also. You need to be consistent with this. 

and Last keep your aquarium lights on longer each day. 

Brown Algae is normal to show up in a new tank setup or where a cycled tank is going through a mini cycle.


Good Luck
JOhn


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## Rider14 (Aug 1, 2009)

jchutch said:


> Hey Rider,
> 
> Yes Brown Algae is unsightful and I will give you what I did when it went out of control in my 20 long tank. Again this is what I did to eliminate it without changing gravel, decor etc.
> 
> ...



Thanks - I'll be picking up a bristlenose pleco soon, likely an albino to keep it shorter. Not sure about plants...live plants don't seem like a good idea to me.

I'll keep doing water changes...I can say the phosphur remover, or what not, seems to be clearing up the tank as well. 

Need to start getting some cory cat specific food t(veggie wafers?) hat drops in front of their cage - never realized their scrounging for fallen tropical flake needed to be supplemented....

- Dan


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## Bigoleoscar (Sep 16, 2009)

The plants are actually an excellent idea, this is because the complex plants use the "nutrients" in the water more quickly and efficiently than the simple algae. They actually outcompete the algae for food thereby starving the algae. Hope this helps.


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## Rider14 (Aug 1, 2009)

Any plants that I can just drop in and ignore?


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## Bigoleoscar (Sep 16, 2009)

Java moss, java fern or anacharis are all about 0 maintenance. To start off you just have to use a bit of cotton thread to attach them to one of your decorations until the roots catch. Just don't bury the roots in the gravel as this will cause the roots to rot.


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## Rider14 (Aug 1, 2009)

How do you get the roots to attach? Just have them touching teh gravel wiith the plant tied to a rock? Once the roots take, will I be able to gravel vac anywhere near it without uprooting it? Sorry, never even considered keeping plants...figured fish and fake plants was the way to go.

I assume I can get these at the LFS, but can I get them at, say, the Petsmart that is 5 minutes from my house?

And which do you recommend for my particular mix of fishes?

- Dan


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

as mentioned, get anubias,java fern and java moss. They all do well with little light, no added ferts. They are hardy and the fish don't rip them apart.
If you add them to a piece of mopani wood the roots will attach themselves to the wood. With java ferns they sometimes float into the water column as well. They make an interesting place for the fish to explore.
Small water creatures can grow in the roots and leaves of plants and the fish love to catch them.
They do not do any damage to anything.


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## jchutch (Sep 8, 2009)

Rider14 said:


> How do you get the roots to attach? Just have them touching teh gravel wiith the plant tied to a rock? Once the roots take, will I be able to gravel vac anywhere near it without uprooting it? Sorry, never even considered keeping plants...figured fish and fake plants was the way to go.
> 
> I assume I can get these at the LFS, but can I get them at, say, the Petsmart that is 5 minutes from my house?
> 
> ...


Hey Dan.

I didnt see this response until today. No way will Petsmart have Java Moss and Anubias. And if they do dont buy it there. 

A Mom and Pop store should have this but actually my Local Petco around here in NY had some Anubias, Java Moss and Anacharis. I found them in a large well circulated tank. Hopefully you can get it there.

The roots of Anubias should not be buried in the gravel. Now the Java Moss you can just place on the bottom of the tank if you wish and put some pieces of gravel to hold it down and stand back as this moss will grow all over. The anacharis are a stalk like plant and you can either let them free float in your tank or you can bury them in the gravel if you wish. They actually look nice planted in my tanks. Here take a look at my plants:

Here is one of my Anubias I attached to a corse rock:

http://s966.photobucket.com/albums/ae148/JohnHutch_photo/?action=view&current=018.jpg

Here is the Anubias in my tank:

http://s966.photobucket.com/albums/ae148/JohnHutch_photo/?action=view&current=024.jpg

Ok now in this pic from back row of plants from left to right is a Amazon Sword, then planted Anacharis, Amazon Sword again and a Java Fern planted in the gravel. The fifth plant is fake.

It might hard to see but the driftwood has Java Moss attached to it. Anyhow enjoy the plants you get and take your time buying them for they can get expensive and if they do take off in your tanks you can split them off and then you have 2. Good Luck. here is the photo


http://s966.photobucket.com/albums/ae148/JohnHutch_photo/?action=view&current=021.jpg


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## Plecostomus (Jul 31, 2006)

Algea eating shrimp are also good at eating algea. They don't always sell them at Petsmart though. If you get plants, be careful with snails, some snails will eat both algea and plants.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

I beg to disagree with the statements that anubias and javas have to be attached to wood or rocks. They actually grow very well in pea size gravel. For the first 5 years I have grown anubias in gravel, and have had to split the plant into several sections as it has grown all the way around the tank. This year when I reorganized my tank, I put 1/2 the anubias onto mopani wood and 1/2 into the gravel again. The ones in the gravel have flowered once since being uprooted and replanted. The ones on the wood have not done anything except put out new leaves.I have given away a lot of javas and anubias because I had so many.

My son keeps his java ferns in the gravel and they do just fine- in fact they overtook his tank to the point that he ripped them out and started off with just one-- there was no room for the goldfish.


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## Fishhorder (Sep 21, 2009)

I have to agree with mousey on the planted anubias. My plants are 20+ yrs. old and I couldn't even tell you how many times I've had to split the parent plants and how many smaller plants I gave to the local (mom & pop) aquarium stores in town. These have always been planted in the gravel and they flower year round in my 55 display tank. I have used cuttings in my breeding krib tanks and those I just place on the top of the gravel and hold down with small pieces of slate. The parents then tunnel under the roots and carry their fry back and forth from under the coconut shell to under the roots.

I would also recommend a plant book for recommendations. Plants are just like fish some like to be at the surface of the tank others like to be buried on the bottom of the tank.


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## N0z (Jun 3, 2009)

I have not had this brown algue but my nan has and i dono how to get rid of it without a plec (which shes got now and its all good) oh and i noticed it happends more in winter


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## rcomeau (Apr 23, 2006)

I wouldn't recommend live plants just to control algae. It can work for sure and is a rewarding solution. I have a planted tank because I want to have a planted tank and therefore make the effort to maintain a planted tank. If you want to keep a planted tank to enjoy a planted tank then go for it. Otherwise, don't go into it with hopes that you "can just drop in and ignore". Perhaps there are easy ways of keeping a planted tank. In my opinion the chance of easy to maintain plants that effectively control algae is very low.

Consider that you have algae now and it is easier to kill off with fake plants. Kill the algae without the worry of killing the plants. You can take out the fake plants now, dip them in 1:19 diluted bleach for a few minutes, rince them very well, then put them back. Live plants can't take more than a few minutes of that dip and they end up stressed even if they survive. You don't have that problem. You can leave them in the dip for longer than 3 minutes. Just be sure to rince them very well and perhaps avoid bleaching the color out of the plastic. A bucket of over-dechlorinated water would make a good soaking bath for rincing. 

Don't clean too much in the tank at once otherwise you will kill off the bacteria of your biofilter. Perhaps clean the plants and wipe the walls one day. Clean the substrate weeks later. Rince the filter in a bowl of the tank water... don't bleach it!

Imagine that you have a planted tank then go read about what it takes to control algae in a planted tank. You will find that the dip suggestion that I mentioned also comes with the complexity that the underlying problem still needs to be fixed for planted tanks... CO2, nutrients, and light levels need to be balanced and at the right level for the plants. And, it is best to avoid messing with the water chemistry by doing things like adding "a bag of phosphor remover or something my buddy gave me".


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