Brown Algae

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davidtcb1

Gambusia
MFK Member
Nov 14, 2006
182
0
16
Nashville TN
In the last few weeks, I have had an outbreak of brown diatom algae in my 75 gallon community tank. The only thing that has changed recently is that I started using the Poly Fil batting stuff that you buy in craft stores instead of the more expensive floss "made for aquariums." It didn't happen immediately, but do you think this change in media could be the source of the problem? I thought I had it taken care of about two weeks ago when I did a 50 percent water change and bleached/rinsed the covered items in the tank. But today, I see some has started to return. The only other thing I can think of is to cut down feeding a bit. I do maintenance/water changes every two weeks, so I doubt it's a nitrate issue. I have been reading online that this type of algae actually stays under control by an abundance (in length left on) of light. The tank is already on in two stages for a total of about 9 hours a day though, which it has been for a long time, so I'm leaning away from that theory as well.

Any thoughts?
 
I am currently fighting a brown algae outbreak in one of my tanks myself. I recently added driftwood, and I was probably overfeeding. I'm cutting back on the food for a while to see if I can get it back under control. I boiled my driftwood for 3 hours with plenty of water changes before adding it to the tank. For a couple of months after, my water was clear, but then I noticed the brown algae. This tank had been established for a long time before I added the driftwood, so I still think that was the cause, but I don't know for sure.
 
I have a 29 gallon with brown algi all over the glass, it has been setup for a while now and only had 1 fish in which i took out the other week. I tried to treat with algi remover but it still there and i cant get rid of it, seems im having the same prob but mine is very close to alot of sunlight so maybe that is what is causing my problem. Im going to try painting the sides and the back black to see if that will help, maybe even remove it as there will be no sunlight getting into the tank at all then :)
 
No real driftwood in the tank, so don't think it's that. I'll try knocking the feeding back and see if that does it. I'm not usually an over-feeder, but maybe they've been getting a little much.
 
Feed every other day, do weekly instead of bi-weekly water changes, and cut down lighting to 6 hours a day. This steady regiment has worked for me personally for many years with several tanks running at the same time.
 
I had a brown algae problem a while back on a tank that saw a decent amount of natural sunlight and what i did to fix the problem was to change the blinds on the window from a white blind to a black blind cutting down on the sunlight and that seemed to do the trick for me.
 
Thanks all for the comments and help.
 
Ok, so today I notice that my 29 gallon is getting the same brown algae problem. The irony? I recently started using the Poly Fil in this tank as well. My other three tanks still have the previous type I was using and are brown algae-free. I think I'm going to switch both of the tanks back to the original floss I have been using for a few years now without problem, just to see if for some quirky reason, this is the cause.
 
Haven't done a phosphate test. Been here for five years and haven't had a problem before. Will look into that though.
 
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