# How often do I need to clean



## jewels2jags (May 6, 2008)

I have a 75 gallon with several africans (15 to20) and a huge plecto. I have been doing a water change every week to try to control brown algae that is driving me nuts. It collects on my rockwall and live plants which I have to scub with a toothbrush. My water stays clear and no fish have died but Id like to enjoy it more than dreading cleaning it so often. Its been up for about2 years now, am I doing something wrong? :-? Advice is appreciated.


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## ademb (Nov 19, 2008)

one tip i was given to get rid of algae, is basically black out the tank for about a week. turn off the lights, cover the tank in black plastic or paper or anything that could shield out the light and just leave it. it wont bother the fish but it will kill the algae!


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## reiger (Nov 29, 2008)

also your bulb maybe over do for changing. with age they are known to cause problems with brown algae


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## lloyd (Aug 24, 2005)

brown algae has little to do with light exposures. diatoms will grow in low light just as well as any. changing out old bulbs will simply trade brown for green algaes if you do not address the root cause. if your tank is well established, then i would suspect high nitrate/phosphate levels. so...the cure would be to A) reduce feedings, B) reduce substrate depth, C) get rid of the big pleco, or D) all of above. i didn't mention larger water changes, because you are looking for answers that do not take more of your time. there are a few species that can help to control brown algae, but most are soft water types (otocinclus, ancistrus), and can/may be difficult to keep with most african types. test kits are available for both nitrate and phosphate. HTH.


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## Steve St.Laurent (Oct 2, 2008)

I have a fairly new tank (fish have been in it for just over a month. 27 days into having fish in the tank I had a significant amount of algae - both green and brown. Here's a picture although it was a lot worse than this picture shows (the entire back wall is covered as is the overflow on the left):










I put three 2" Albino BN Pleco's in the tank 16 days ago and this is what the tank looks like today:










The only thing I've done to remove algae is cleaned the front and side glass and I pulled the plants out about 2 weeks ago and ran them under water to clean them up. The back glass and overflow are now almost completely clean and the holey rocks look great! Seems like the BN plecos are doing a bang up job with the brown algae (it's completely gone from the tank).


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