'Brown Algae' Easy Fix

[mikalski]

Shortly after setting up my 75 Gallon shell dweller tank, using pool filter sand as a substrate, every inch of my aquarium was covered in brown diatoms. They were easy to scrub off and manually remove but would reappear within a week, again covering every thing and killing plants.

Eventually after looking into what many call 'brown algae' I realized they were in fact diatoms- unicellular organisms protected by a shell of silicon dioxide. The silicon was of course provided by the sand substrate I used.

To solve my problem I knew I had to eliminate the dissolved silicon but did not want to remove the sand. Therefore during my next water change instead of refilling with tap water I used distilled water.

Without scrubbing any surface, only vaccuming debris off the substrate and refilling with distilled water, within a week the diatoms were completely gone! Reducing the hardness of the water caused them to dissolve and peel off glass/rocks so they could be easily vaccumed away.

Long story short- if you have brown algae do a 15% water change and refill with distilled water and your problem is solved!

 

[monkeybike]

I've always found brown diatoms to be a short term problem that usually corrects it's self as the tank matures.

 

[mikalski]

I've always found brown diatoms to be a short term problem that usually corrects it's self as the tank matures.

I always thought the same thing but with the pool filter sand (which is silica) and hard tap water in my area I found it to remain a major problem 5 months after setting up the tank. This fix took less than a week.

 

[monkeybike]

Btw, bristle nose plecos will eat it, they took care of my initial brown diatoms. I'm in the same boat here with hard water and pfs.

 

[Sublime cichlids Mike]

Guppies and other live bearers, oto cats, snails tear it up too.

 

[Vukmir13]

My L137 did an excellent job on mine, made cleaning rocks and any hardscape unnecessary

 

[The Mother Confessor]

Seachem Flourish Excell fixed mine. I had no cats or plecs, so it was a lifesaver!

 

[Hendre]

I have it, in a 6 month established tank. It comes off very easily but is a very light brown colour generally with a little bit of green algae inbetween. A kitchen sponge is my best friend

 

[Vukmir13]

If anyone has any suggestions on how to keep brown algae under control in my FH 75 gallon. He won't allow tankmates so the flipper scrubber has been my secret weapon, thus far.

 

[The Mother Confessor]

My 'easy' fix:

Okay I'm gonna share with you a very hard and very expensive lesson that I learnt a few years back. Back when my cichlids were babies, I had a heavily planted grow out tank that went from looking like this...



To this, 5 months later...




Notice that 95% of the plants had to be binned and replaced with bog wood due to the leaves dying when the algae starved them of light. I had brown algae that suffocated the plants, green hair algae stringing about, black hair algae that was impossible to remove. You name it, I had it.

It got a lot worse before I fixed it. At one point, the algae was so bad that it was stringing around the tank and the fish were having to swim through it. I know your probably not keeping plants and it's probably not as severe as this, but stick with me here.

The algae continued to grow and get worse no matter what I did. I would scrub the wood clean by hand, and it would just come back again. RO water, short times with the lights on... Blah blah blah. I was really pissed. There was a LOT of money's worth of plants in there, and it was my first ever planted tank. Notice even the surviving plants have algae all over the edges of the leaves, it was starving them.

Here's what cured it: 2x dosing with FLOURISH EXCELL + ROWAPHOS in the filter. They did a FANTASTIC job. 10/10! I had to replace the plants eventually because the leaves were damaged, but the wood and the back wall of the tank started to clear up until eventually, it all died. Put me off plants for a long time, but taught me how to kill and prevent algae and manage crap tap water.

The stubborn brown spots, green hair, indestructible black hair and glass algae all died, and didn't come back. FINALLY!

Three years later, I still dose with Excell and use Rowaphos as a preventative measure. Some days I double dose, some days I just use the recommended dose. I have literally no algae in my tank apart from the usual spots on the glass if I don't clean it for a long while, but that's mostly due to a window casting light on the front of my tank. That algae outbreak taught me a hard and very expensive lesson.

Apologies for the essay, but if I can at least help one person stop their tank turning into a pond, I'm happy! It was a very annoying ordeal that went on for around 6 months.

TLDR: A cheap API Phosphate testing kit will tell you if phosphate is your problem. I wish I had known that at the time.