Ugh Brown Algae is killing my plants!!!

[Sab_Fan]

as noted, if it is a new tank, you may want to wait until conditions are stable . . . if it continues after that, you can try adding one or two otocinclus cats . . . if you think those might get eaten, you could also try a chaetostoma catfish, like a bulldog pleco . . .

I'm going thru something similar with a new 20G planted tank . . . at some point, I'm going to add otos or a bulldog pleco, just to keep things nice and clean . . .

 

[cichlidfish]

is this the algae youre talking about? diatoms/brown algae? http://theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm

articles says it's due to silicates and ammonia

I have found brown algae grows fine at 0 amonia. The best bet is to cut down the light cycle and scrub off all of the algae with a soft brush.

 

[punk-in-drublic]

I have also seen diatoms grow just fine with zero ammonia. Do you have a sand substrate by any chance?

 

[goestonemoa]

im having the same problem but it seems to fluxuate bi -weekly some times my plants are good and some times they are brown
i heard that snails can help safeley remove this algae and i bought 3 and it seemed to do the trick until my knife to one of them in the mouth and crushed it with his throught teath.....
so im going to buy a few more snails .(some apple and mystery snails)
we will see how it goes

 

[TiggertheOscar]

Time is all it takes...