# Green Algae, Brown Algae, & Plants browning oh my



## Sizz (Apr 28, 2008)

I've read so many posts about algae to the point that my brain is fried and I just wanted to verify that my assumptions are correct. Pics below should help a lot. 

Symptons:

I believe I have 3 problems. I have brown algae on the bottom of the front glass, substrate, and the rock. It's not exactly easy to come off so I guess its diatoms? Green spot algae on driftwood, crypts, microsword(not in the tank anymore) and glass. Both of these 'algae' started about a month ago and has slowly grown. Most of the plants are also browning some around the edges. This includes the microsword which I just took out a few days ago, wisteria, hornwort, and moneywort. The dwarf hairgrass you see was just put in, hence the freshness. The plants slightly behind and left of the rock did not handle shipping well (sat at the post office over memorial day weekend) and are recovering, so ignore those.

Tank info:

36G. About a week ago, I doubled the lighting from 48w to 96w of T5, 10 hours on a timer. I also started injecting CO2 via a 10lb tank & controller. I started seeing both types of algae before I made the upgrade so I don't think it's directly related to lighting. I'm using a filstar xp3 and flow is great, every single plant sways a little.

Assuming i'm not colorblind, my tank has 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 5 nitrate (see pic #5). My drop checker isn't in yet so I have just been injecting enough CO2 to lower the pH from 8 to 6.8 with a KH of 5. That should be about 25ppm. I also dosed flourish, excel, and iron as recommend over the last month.

In hindsight, the algae started to take off when I started PPMD ferts weekly:
4g KCL (20ppm potassium)
1g KNO3 (4.5ppm nitrates)
1ml fleet (1ppm phosphate)

I'm guessing the algae first started a couple months ago from too much lighting without co2. When i started ferts, I guess I added too much since my tank isn't heavily planted and didn't change the water enough (only did 30% weekly). The plants couldn't use up all of the macro's which gave algae a chance to grow. I'm also guessing that browning of the leaves is due to the increased lighting because the new growth is looking great and it's growing like crazy now, especially the moneywort.

So my solution is to reduce ferts and change out more of the water each week. Reducing the photoperiod to 8 hours help much? Anything else I'm missing? I could add some more plants I guess. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


Pic #1









Pic #2 Green Algae on driftwood









Pic #3 Green Algae on back glass









Pic #4 Brown Algae (diatoms?)








Pic #5


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## shanek (Oct 1, 2003)

I would suggest purchasing a CO2 drop checker with 4KH reference solution. This will help you determine if you have about 30ppm CO2 in your tank.

It would probably be good to run your lights for about 8 hours/day.

Make sure your tank doesn't run out of NO3, PO4, K, or micros.

Do your weekly water changes (~50%).

Keep your filter clean and running well.

Get yourself an algae crew if you don't have them already: ottos, amano shrimp, cherry red shrimp, etc.

It may take time for it all to come together so be patient with the tank


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## Sizz (Apr 28, 2008)

Thanks. I did order a drop checker with everything but I guess it's coming from overseas because cal aqua labs said it'll take 10-12 days to get here. I have 3 ottos but I'll probably get 2 more since they are fun to watch and I like how the school. You suggested not to run out of nutrients but isn't excessive nutrients what cause my algae? That's what I'm not sure about.


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## reybie (Jun 7, 2007)

If you go in excess reset it with a big water change which is basically what's done with EI fertilizing.


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## shanek (Oct 1, 2003)

No, excess nutrients does not cause algae. You want to make sure the tank has nutrients. To get you started:

NO3 about 10-20ppm
PO4 about 1-2ppm
K about 20ppm
FE about 0.2ppm
CO2 about 30ppm


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

shanek said:


> No, excess nutrients does not cause algae. You want to make sure the tank has nutrients.


this is by no means a statement of fact :icon_roll


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## KJS5048 (Jul 2, 2008)

I am having the exact same problems mainly with the brown algae (diatoms?) what should i do to specifically adress that. It's covering my moss and the leaves of my sword plants. Is there any specific critters I can get to help me with that besides the two chinese algae eaters I have (its only a 20 gal). I have 55w of light I run for about 10 hours a day and a DIY c02 diffuser and I'm not sure how to measure the c02 levels of the water. The swords and everything else are flourishing besides the brown algae. My powerhead flows strongly that I have the co2 reactor hooked up to. I turned down the flow but is it still too strong. I don't want to cut the flow because its so fun to watch my coreys play in it. However, I'll do what I have to do get rid of the problem. Thanks a lot


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