i have a 180g tank and have a brown algae problem. i have a uv sterilizer and a big light and i just cant seem to get rid of it. i also have live plants so chemicals wont do either. can anyone give me some advice as to what i should do to rid my tank of this plague?
Brown Algae
- Thread starter D-Train
- Start date
How long do you keep the light on for? Ive found that if you cut the light back to 3,4 hours a day it clears it up pretty quick, along with water changes, and as mentioned before its best not to have the tank in view of the sun
Light has nothing to do with it. Have you tested your parameters? You likely have a high nutrient level, and need to do water changes.
The only way to get rid of algae is to starve it to death. So etheir lower the nutrients with water changes if your tap has low nutrient levels. Lessen the light on time (8hrs is good). Or get some more plants that will out compete the algae for availiable food. Brown algae is common with newer planted tanks like 1yr or less. If you are covered in the algae you can kill it with a bleach dip on the plants. I do this with my hearty plants like swords and stuff. I take a 5g bucket and add about 5ml of bleach and soak them for 3-4minutes and then rinse very good and soak in another bucket with dechloranator at 5x strength and water. It works wonders but fragile plants can't handle it. Any plant with broad leaves can handle a couple of minutes. While they are soaking scrub the tank free of algae as much a s you can. And then the next day wash all filters. That is my routine when i get algae problems and it works everytime. I have done this 3 times in 5yrs.
i had it real bad in mine and i just stirred it off my sand and kept up on water changes and now its barely even noticable by the end of the week and by then its time for a water change. just happens.