# Turning Brown Algae into Green Algae?



## AxRhea88 (Sep 21, 2009)

How can I accomplish this? All I have on my rocks at the moment is brown algae. I think green algae looks great in cichlid tanks, plus they like to nibble on it. Any help? Thanks


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## austinramirez (Aug 15, 2009)

my problem was my lighting,what kind of lighting do you have?


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## Tinga (Nov 27, 2009)

I have heard more of a specific light wavelength, I'd like to know as well. Got tons of brown.. no green yet. opcorn:


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## Jsuing86 (Oct 31, 2009)

I am also curious of this... My algae started green... soon it turned to brownish//red.


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

the only tank that i have green algae in has a 50/50 bulb, it is a blend of blue actinic and 10,000k daylight. the rest just have regular aquarium bulbs, also it's a 36watt compact on a 29 gallon tank, so it's either high watt or the types of bulb so go from there


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## AxRhea88 (Sep 21, 2009)

I just have normal flourescents for now.


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## FishBum81 (Jan 31, 2009)

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but my experience says brown algae tends to be a sign of poor water conditions while the healthy green algae comes when conditions are in check. If brown algae shows up, I'm probably over feeding the fish again and as soon as I cut back and do an extra water change, everything corrects itself.


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## AxRhea88 (Sep 21, 2009)

I perform water changes on a weekly basis though. I do notice when I keep the flourescents off for longer stretches of time that the brown algae fades away all on it's own. Saltwater tanks always have a large amount of green algae and there always using more advanced lighting systems for corals and such. Maybe change the lighting and a change in algae sprouts.


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

FishBum81 said:


> Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but my experience says brown algae tends to be a sign of poor water conditions while the healthy green algae comes when conditions are in check. If brown algae shows up, I'm probably over feeding the fish again and as soon as I cut back and do an extra water change, everything corrects itself.


Your post shows up the individual nature of our tanks.
One persons solution does nothing for another.
Water quality, food, and lighting are the main culprits with an algae problem.
Agree, 100%, if you are going to have algae, the green is much better looking.
I will say, my fish would graze on the brown algae, when it plagued my tank.
Darn stuff seemed to grow back as fast as I could scrape it off the glass, and cover rocks in a day.
Just made the tank look dirty, to me.
For me a lighting change made the brown go green.
I also added CAE(Chinese Algae Eaters) while the new lights were being configured/installed.
Bought 4, 2 are survivors. 
Over night, they had cleared a substantial amount of rock. By the end of the week, the 2 had cleaned up an entire 55g.


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## Tinga (Nov 27, 2009)

I was under the impression that brown algae is a low light variant, and will turn to green if given more light. I mean, the fish are eating it alright, but I'd rather have the green.


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## DrgRcr (Jun 23, 2009)

I was under the impression that, besides lighting, that silica and phosphate in the tank will also cause diatoms. I have it in every tank, probably from my well water pool filter sand, which is silica. In my older tank, I have started to see some green spots show up and I have to say I'd much rather clean the brown.


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## JimA (Nov 7, 2009)

I never had brown up until a couple of weeks ago, originally I had green, I hit the water with some anti algae gone type stuff and the green went away never to be seen again, this was early summer. Now the brown has shown up. After reading lots of stuff here I haven't used the algae gone stuff since then. Not sure what it does, and it didn't seem to harm the fish.

The only thing I changed in the tank is adding salt buffer and changed to the gold pellet cichlid food.

May be a stupid question, but can fish food cause changes in a tank, like using green frozen food and green based pellet cause green algae and like wise with the brown pellet type food. Sounds crazy but the brown didn't show up till I changed food.


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## DrgRcr (Jun 23, 2009)

I'm not sure, but I think it's more a possibilty with overfeeding, than a specific type of food.


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## Jsuing86 (Oct 31, 2009)

Well... I guess I shouldn't of assumed that your "brown" algae was the same as my "brownish" algae. Mine (in the right light) is almost red. Given my tank is an old saltwater reed tank. I have four 4ft long VHOs in the hood. Along with two 250 metal halides. I never run the metal halides. I will start to run them and see if the algae changes color?


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

expect green water if you turn on the halides lol


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## Jsuing86 (Oct 31, 2009)

Not with a UV sterilizer :wink:


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## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

Jsuing86 said:


> Well... I guess I shouldn't of assumed that your "brown" algae was the same as my "brownish" algae. Mine (in the right light) is almost red. Given my tank is an old saltwater reed tank. I have four 4ft long VHOs in the hood. Along with two 250 metal halides. I never run the metal halides. I will start to run them and see if the algae changes color?


Out of curiosity, are you using gravel substrate that was in the salt water tank previously. I ask because I fought a brown algae problem for a couple of years on one particular tank. Only this tank had an issue, none of my other tanks ever have. Nitrate never really exceeded 10ppm, I changed lighting around, added a U.V. Sterilizer, dimmed the lighting, increased the lighting, nothing helped. Then the proverbial light bulb clicked on (yes, two years later, I'm not that quick sometimes). I bought the tank used and it had previously been used as a salt water tank. I was using the same gravel that came with the tank (well rinsed of course). I replaced the gravel with pool filter sand and the brown algae disappeared (and has remained gone for several months now). The best I can figure is that the gravel had soaked in high sulfates (in the saltwater tank) for so long that it had absorbed them and was leaching them back into the water. High sulfates cause brown algae (high phosphates cause green algae). By removing the gravel I removed the sulfates (I assume, as I have no way to test for sulfates). By removing the sulfates I removed the imbalance that was resulting in brown algae.


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## Jsuing86 (Oct 31, 2009)

Nope, I am using new substrate. Seachem's "Gray Coast"


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

Jsuing86 said:


> Not with a UV sterilizer :wink:


UV is an excellent tool for allot of things that are in your water.
Flow/wattage will determine what the UV will kill.
What a UV will not do is remove algae from any tank surfaces. 
That needs either mechanical or organic cleaning.
Pulling everything out of a tank for cleaning is way more work than I want to do. My hat is off to those who have done just that.
The organics, whether pleco, snails, or cae would seem a more reasonable approach to algae control. 
I would stay away from any chemical algae cleaners/removers, but that is just from doing allot of searching/reading. After doing this â€œdue diligenceâ€


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## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

KaiserSousay said:


> The organics, whether pleco, snails, or cae would seem a more reasonable approach to algae control.
> 
> I would stay away from any chemical algae cleaners/removers, but that is just from doing allot of searching/reading. After doing this â€œdue diligenceâ€


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

> adding carbon to a tank to absorb the odor of a dead fish instead of removing the dead fish.


 :lol: 
good
very good
:lol:


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## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

You laugh.... I've actually seen it done. :-? I sat up a tank for a friend. A few months later he called me and said his tank was smelling up something awful. He added carbon and it helped some, but it was still stinking. I went by his house and discovered a fungus'ed up angelfish jammed behind the prefilter. 

Moral of the story, find the cause and correct it.

Oddly enough, the only place I have an algae "problem" (I don't really consider it a problem) is my Kissing Gourami tank, which happens to be a planted tank and also has a pleco (an 18" monster that was a rescue as a 3" baby.... that I wish I did not have). The cause of algae in this tank is know. First off, back in the day, before it was a planted tank, I actually introduced bearded algae to the tank and encourage it, to serve as a grazing food for the Kissing Gourami. Now, because of the darn pleco, nutrients are hard to manage. But I don't let it bother me. I would say having the constant source of grazing food has been good for the Kissing Gourami. He is, after-all, now 20 years old.  The juvie red-tailed black shark that is in the tank always has a fat little belly as well. I've raised many a group of Angelfish fry in the same tank. The fry feed on critters living amongst the algae (or on the algae itself). Having algae covering the filter tubes, rocks, decorations, and the edges of some of the plants is a small price to pay for these benefits. But then again, aesthetics have never been a primary concern in my fish keeping.


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## Jsuing86 (Oct 31, 2009)

KaiserSousay: The comment I was responding to was about having green water. I know a UV sterilizer won't clean your rocks. It does, however, keep my tank from becoming a green cloud!


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

How long have you had the tank set up for? I have generally observed that brown algae (usually cyanobacteria) tends to grow during the first month or two after setup, while green algae predominates in more mature systems.

i also like the look of green algae on rocks. It also make a nice "patina" if the fish mow it down tight or if you scrape the longer strands off the rock.


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## JimA (Nov 7, 2009)

Ok my brown algae is spreading onto more rocks, the water is where it's suppose to be feedings have not changed twice a day. doing a 30% change once a week. Any ideas other than removing everything and scrubbing?

I am going to go from a 30 to a 46 gallon but decided to wait till after Christmas.

Thoughts?


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

once you have algae you have algae, unless something is there to eat it or like you said, you scrub it, as long as there is nitrate and light, there will be algae


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## JimA (Nov 7, 2009)

I see a bristle nose pleco in my future??


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

JimA said:


> I see a bristle nose pleco in my future??


Would be your choice.
In my area I have never seen any available and would have had to use a â€œnetâ€


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## CeeJay (Aug 16, 2016)

Brown algae and green algae are two different kinds of algae. More light will not make it change but will get the green to grow. I see no problems with poor water quality and brown algae. It's more of a new tank thing. I had it bad the first few months and then it just kind of went away. Stay away from the golden algae eaters they will get a taste for the slime on the side of your fish. I would recommend flying foxes much safer for your cichlids I don't know what the cichlids will do to them. My cichlids would graze on the brown with out much problems. I would rather have brown then black algae.


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