save my anubias

[WyldFya]

That's good and sound advice. One of the many routes one could go to fix the problem. There is no 'one' answer to this problem.





So, if it isn't phosphates, and you put down my advice that it's high nitrates (which I made an educated guess that they were high, before he even told us he had high nitrates/ plus, yes, nitrates do cause algae, including brown and green), and potassium does not cause algae (that covers the macros N,P,K), what nutrients do you think is causing the problem?

At first I thought it might be silicates from the sand, but this is an established system that did not have a brown algae problem prior to the move, and the lighting level has stayed the same.

Nitrates do not commonly cause brown algae. Your information is not accurate, and needed light shed on it. Nitrates cause many higher order alga, but not brown alga. The two primary reasons for brown algae is one, inadequate lighting, and two silicates. He has now shed the light that with his sand addition, the truth has come out. It is silicates in the water. Nitrates cause many alga, but brown is not one of them. The common alga seen in planted tanks that are caused by excessive nitrogen in the water are: green, beard, hair and thread.

 

[WyldFya]

Cohazard you reminded me of something I did not mention. When I moved the tank I switched from very fine gravel to this pool filter sand. Sorry I did not include that earlier you just brought it to my attention. Everything else in the tank stayed the same. There has never been any detectable ammonia and the pH is ~7.2. Also the tank was moved around the end of July.

The silicates from the pool filter sand would be the cause of the brown algae. To fix this problem, the easiest way would be to either add another light strip, or increase the lighting type to PC, or HO T5. With the light upgrade though, you will fight more alga problems.

 

[Charney]

Everyone thank you for all the help. Do you recommend a particular bulb to use? I cannot fit another fixture on my tank so I will have to switch the bulbs. Will this solution help out my anubias or will the additional algae problems to come still hurt the plant? If you don't mind could you explain how the additional light takes care of the silicates. Also now that I know val can live at a lower light requirement I think I am going to pick some up for my tank.

 

[WyldFya]

Changing the bulbs may help, but that would only be if your current bulbs are older than 6 months. Many bulbs lose intensity over time, for standard fluorescent bulbs that time is usually 6-12 months. Higher lighting will not fix your silicate problem, but it will fix your brown algae problem. Brown algae, like low light exclusive plants (java fern), cannot stand lighting above a certain point. Even with ideal water parameters, the light will cause the algae to cease growing, and die off.

 

[Cohazard]

I'm still confused as to why this problem would suddenly appear, just because he moved the tank? Same lighting, same sand substrate, old setup.

From what I've read, the silicates that the substrate and glass leaches early in the setup of an aquarium, dissipates over time. Once the ratio of silicates to phosphates goes away so do the diatoms.

 

[WyldFya]

He added the sand during the move. So his silicate levels haven't been able to come down at all yet.

 

[Cohazard]

ah I just caught his last post. yeah, it's definitely silicates causing the brown algae, and nitrates causing the green.

 

[roombo]

Would Purigen or Pura Complete help? I have the same problem