# Cant get rid of a little brown algae



## 60gallon (Dec 14, 2010)

*Water Parameters*
PH: 7.6
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: 10-20ppm
Temp: 79Ã‚Â°

*Water Changes *
Weekly - 50-75%

*Food*
Life Spectrum Cichlid Formula mini pellets : feed twice daily, fasting 1 day a week

*Lighting*
Dual 48" flouro light : comes on at noon, goes off at 9pm
1: 10K bulb
1: 420 actinic bulb

*Filtration*
Fluval FX5

*Water Movement*
2x: Koralia 750
1x: Maxijet 1000

*Substrate*
60lbs of Leslies pool filter sand

I have a 90 gallon setup and can NOT get rid of this **** brown algae. Theres only a few spots on my glass in between weekly water changes but its easy to get rid of w/ the algae magnet but its on the resin tree trunks as well as the PFS. All I have to do w/ the PFS is stir it up but I dont want to take my ornaments out weekly to clean them. I want to get to the bottom of WHY this brown algae wont go away!

*** googled and everyone says it can be over feeding (pic below of what I feed them), bad water conditions (I think my water parameters above are good), lighting (not sure if thats the cause) and pool filter sand (leaching silicates?)

Heres the amount of food I feed them : twice daily, six days a week. Once around 8am and again at 5pm. My fish range in size between 3"-4.5".



















I know when you first cycle a tank youd have some brown algae maybe for few weeks after its getting established but my tanks been up and running since Dec. '10. Also the brown is supposed to turn into green algae but its not. I wouldnt mind green algae, I think itd be pretty cool to watch my Cichlids graze on it between feedings. I was ready to buy Cichlid sand and remove the PFS this past week but after looking into silica based PFS as being the cause most say thats just hype.

I put a link to my youtube video below. You can see the brown algae on my ornaments, the ornaments are supposed to be a gray'ish color. If you look at the ornament on the left side of the tank you can really see the gray color its supposed to be.

Video ---> 




I dont know what to do, any ideas??


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## vann59 (Jun 20, 2011)

Great looking peacocks, congrats. If PFS doesn't cause algae in pools, why would it cause algae in your tank? That's definitely not the problem. I have algaequel but haven't actually used it yet. In another forum they were discussing Nerite snails as an effective algae eater, so I researched it, and ordered some off ebay. They should be arriving around tuesday. Some people also swear by plecos, especially BN the variety. I don't really like the look of them though, and they are big polluters as I understand, so I want to try the nerite zebra snails for cleaning my rocks.


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## vann59 (Jun 20, 2011)

Ok, another thing I forgot. If you use the mag float with a piece of micro fiber terry on it, it really polishes the interior super clean, so the glass part is easy.


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## newforestrob (Feb 1, 2010)

I know alot of people would disagree,but I dont use pfs anymore for this reason,
maybe it was a combination of things,but when I took it out after a year the diatoms never came back,
low light,silicates,phosphates all contribute from what I have read
its also interesting that I had the problem in the 90,I would first look at your lighting,maybe its not penetrating deep enough
nice looking set-up by the way(minus the diatoms)


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

Agree that a closer look at your lighting is needed. What is the fixture? T5? T5HO? Also how old are the bulbs?


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## FishFlake (Mar 7, 2010)

Olive nerite snails have worked great for me. BN Plecos have as well, but I agree, they are major poopers!


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## 60gallon (Dec 14, 2010)

vann59 said:


> Great looking peacocks, congrats. If PFS doesn't cause algae in pools, why would it cause algae in your tank? That's definitely not the problem. I have algaequel but haven't actually used it yet. In another forum they were discussing Nerite snails as an effective algae eater, so I researched it, and ordered some off ebay. They should be arriving around tuesday. Some people also swear by plecos, especially BN the variety. I don't really like the look of them though, and they are big polluters as I understand, so I want to try the nerite zebra snails for cleaning my rocks.


Thanks!

I have a 40K gallon pool w/ a DE filter BUT if we had a sand filter, itd probably take 200-300lbs or so of sand. I have 60lbs in a 90 gallon! So to say it doesnt cause it in a pool so why in an aquarium isnt really comparing apples to apples. The pool has ALOT more volume of water compared to the pounds of sand it would have in its filter. :lol:

Dont want any algae eaters, I want to fix the problem. I just have to figure out what the problem is. opcorn: Appreciate the help!



vann59 said:


> Ok, another thing I forgot. If you use the mag float with a piece of micro fiber terry on it, it really polishes the interior super clean, so the glass part is easy.


I have a mag-float too. Really theres not alot of brown algae on the glass, maybe 2-3 spots the size of 50 cent pieces so its very easy to clean, just a quick swipe cleans the glass.



newforestrob said:


> I know alot of people would disagree,but I dont use pfs anymore for this reason,
> maybe it was a combination of things,but when I took it out after a year the diatoms never came back,
> low light,silicates,phosphates all contribute from what I have read
> its also interesting that I had the problem in the 90,I would first look at your lighting,maybe its not penetrating deep enough
> nice looking set-up by the way(minus the diatoms)


Thanks!

*** read people having problems w/ PFS too and some, like you, when they switched substrates the problem went away. Im tempted to just switch to some other sand and see if it helps but all of the sand *** found are light and can stir up easily. Thats the one thing I LOVE about the PFS, as soon as you stir it or when my peacocks are sifting through looking for food and spitting it out through their gills, it immediately sinks right back to the bottom!! That stuff is pretty heavy.



GTZ said:


> Agree that a closer look at your lighting is needed. What is the fixture? T5? T5HO? Also how old are the bulbs?


The fixture / bulbs are dual - T8s. I purchased the bulbs at the end of January 2011 but *** been having this problems for months now. I know my 90 gallon is tall so maybe the light isnt bright enough BUT Im having the same problem in my Moms 55 gallon, also using dual T8s.

Both tanks have the same water parameters, we live in the same municipal district, so same tap water and both tanks have PFS. My Moms tank has more brown algae that mine does....she has alot of natural sunlight hitting the tank so thats weird if everyone says more light decreases the brown algae?


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## 69183 (Apr 25, 2011)

vann59 said:


> Great looking peacocks, congrats. If PFS doesn't cause algae in pools, why would it cause algae in your tank? That's definitely not the problem. I have algaequel but haven't actually used it yet. In another forum they were discussing Nerite snails as an effective algae eater, so I researched it, and ordered some off ebay. They should be arriving around tuesday. Some people also swear by plecos, especially BN the variety. I don't really like the look of them though, and they are big polluters as I understand, so I want to try the nerite zebra snails for cleaning my rocks.


I have 8 nerite snails (5 tiger and 3 I forget the breed), but they do eat up that brown algae. They'll also clean up some of the green algae as well. I also have BN pleco in there who does a decent job at keep the tank clean. Still have to run the mag float on the glass every now and again, but the algae is mostly on my rocks and equipment, not the glass.


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

> If PFS doesn't cause algae in pools, why would it cause algae in your tank?


The chlorine added to pool water kills off algae.

This may not be helpful, but I run a couple of dozen tanks and each seems to grow it's own special crop of algae. Some lighting is different, some sand, etc. I've just found it to be opportunistic. When one kind gets a foothold, it takes over. I had red algae in a tank once and successfully changed it over to green by changing the bulbs to a different spectrum. That'd be the easiest first thing to try although you may be using what you're using because it brings out the best color in the fish. No easy answers.


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## vann59 (Jun 20, 2011)

prov356 said:


> > If PFS doesn't cause algae in pools, why would it cause algae in your tank?
> 
> 
> The chlorine added to pool water kills off algae.
> ...


Pools are great for growing algae, and even better if you remove the filter :lol: so you certainly don't need to have PFS or something to get algae. Indeed it is opportunistic. Since it's airborne, it always gets into our water, and then it either lives or dies. Municipal water in most of Florida is green in tint, but most people don't know that because they don't look at it at great depth. If you fill a white finished pool with our tap water, it is greenish going in, until you treat it.

DE is definitely a better filter media than sand for a pool, but it is itself the remains of dead diatoms.


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## mccluggen (Jul 5, 2008)

If you aren't over feeding then lighting amount or length of time may be a factor. Reduce the amount of time the light is on or just switch it off for a week and starve it out (though it is liable to return).

You can also get rid of of algae by spot treating with hydrogen peroxide (you can use up to 3 ml per gallon of 3% strength peroxide, it rapidly disassociates into water and oxygen and won't do any damage to livestock or biological filtration at this strength), just turn off the filters and spray it near the algae but it will return if underlying factors aren't addressed.

Nerites will control it long term and produce a lot less of a bio load than bristlenose will, or you can just learn to live with it. :lol:


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## vann59 (Jun 20, 2011)

mccluggen said:


> If you aren't over feeding then lighting amount or length of time may be a factor. You can get rid of of algae by spot treating with hydrogen peroxide (you can use up to 3 ml per gallon of 3% strength peroxide, it rapidly disassociates into water and oxygen and won't do any damage to livestock or biological filtration at this strength), just turn off the filters and spray it near the algae but it will return if underlying factors aren't addressed.
> 
> Nerites will control it long term and produce a lot less of a bio load than bristlenose will, or you can just learn to live with it. :lol:


I just got my Zebra Nerites yesterday, and even though they are only about 3/8" in size, they are really cleaning it up great already. I didn't want pleco's because I don't really like the way they look and I don't want big polluters in the tank, so I think I found just what I wanted.


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## DanniGirl (Jan 25, 2007)

GTZ said:


> Agree that a closer look at your lighting is needed. What is the fixture? T5? T5HO? Also how old are the bulbs?


+1 on lighting. Try cutting back on the running hours of the lights.


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