I am sick and tired of this Brown Algae. Help!

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waytoodeep03

Candiru
MFK Member
Jan 5, 2009
195
12
48
florida
I am ready to get to the bottom of this. Anyone have any ideas?

I have two tanks one with a flowerhorn and one with south americans. Both tanks cant even go two weeks without being flooded with brown diatoms on the glass and everything.

1. I cant use snails as my flowerhorn will eat them for snack.

So the common denominators on both of these tanks are

1. Water of course (Phosphates at 0) I use phosguard with zero luck.
2. Both are using 3m color quartz black sand( Could this be the issue?)
3. Both are using Beamworks Full Spectrum LED Lighting.

Both tanks have been cycled for well over a year and a half. 90 gallon Flowerhorn tank uses two fx6's
120 gallon South American tank is using one Sun Sun 704b and two Aquaclear 110's.

Can someone please help me figure this out. This brown algae is frustrating and Im starting to rethink this hobby . I just want to enjoy my fish.
 
I know you say you can’t use snails because of your flowerhorn. I get that. But have you tried nitrite snails? I swear they are the armored tank of snails. Even my koi couldn’t get to all of mine. Plus they are just the best all around snail imo.

Another question. How long do you keep your lights on for?
 
I have an 7" leopard pleco and he cleans up the 75G tank in a day or two--the 150G in a maybe just a bit more. I usually move him around from tank to tank as needed (only because I have only 1). How would the South Americans do with a pleco in the tank? Just a thought.

I would imagine that the #1 preventative method is to carefully analyze the amount of light per day you are shining in the tank. The fish don't need a lot of light during their day. It's just humans that like things bright. Just an opinion. I have reduced the hours that the lights are on and it has helped quite a bit.
 
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I was going to say much the same thing. Its probley how long you are running the light's. I have an adjustable led light and have created a setting that allows me to see the fish, also they are more active. Best thing tho is I have no algea blooms.
I have a Fluval Aquasky LED. With the light I made all the LEDs turn of, then added 1 red,blue,green,white. Just one notch above off creates enough light to see them but no evil algea blooms.
 
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Gourami Swami said:
Ambient lighting in the room? Direct sunlight at all? Water change schedule/nitrate readings?
Click to expand...


Ambient light in room all day. Not near sunlight.

Water change is once per week.

Nitrate was at 20ppm. This was at todays water change.


I keep the leds on for a max 6 hours per day. Ive tried all day
Lighting and ive tried no lights for 2 days and the diatoms still grew
 
20ppm isn't that high, but more water changes could definitely help. I'd try doing 2x a week for a couple weeks, 50% changes. Make sure the tank is oxygenated enough as well
 
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You could try phosguard from seachem or another silicate absorbing resin in your filtration. Diatoms require silicon dioxide to grow their cell walls. It is likely present in your tap water and not a result of the substrate.
 
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waytoodeep03 said:
2. Both are using 3m color quartz black sand( Could this be the issue?
Click to expand...
Quartz sand is chock full of silicates as I understand it. Could most definitely be a contributor to diatoms..
 
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