# Brown algae (not diatoms) on sand and lower part of the tank walls



## philipraposo1982 (Mar 6, 2014)

No sure what type of algae this is but I do know it looks like this








That's not my tank though.

My algae only grows less than an inch from the bottom substrate up. It's mostly on the sand but not thick.

What type of algae is this? How to reduce it? I wipe the glass and it comes back in a week.

A bit of background info.

This all started when I moved to a place with very high TDs and hard water. Like TDs is 800 ish. 28 degrees hardness. Ph or 8.1 ish. Tank temp is held at 25.3 celcius. Fx6 for filter, 75g, substrate is caribsea moonlight sand. Only 3 anubias in the tank but lots of terrestrial plants. Low bioload. Light is finnex planted plus, it's suspended higher up and tilted to direct.most of the light on the terrestrial plants.










In this picture it's not bad at all as things are clean at the time. I do run my light 11 hours a day but because it's so high up and not directed on the tank I figured par is quite low and wouldn't be an issue. I guess I could try and reduce the photoperiod down to 8 hours and see how it goes.

I just wanted some feedback before I do anything. Thanks.

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## II Knucklez II (Oct 31, 2011)

Is the tank by any Windows? Try to cut down on light schedule just to see if it's light that way you can rule that out.

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## philipraposo1982 (Mar 6, 2014)

To the left of the tank is a wall of windows but sunlight doesn't directly enter the apartment. It's just enough to light the room so you don't need to turn on house lights. The windows are also 15' away and we have a big overhang covering our big balcony

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## II Knucklez II (Oct 31, 2011)

Ya doesn't seem like that would be the issue but still light bounces off everything but I would still cut down your lights to see if there is any changes. 

I'm dealing with an algae issue myself but the tank is near a skylight that is tinted lightly and the sun light doesn't come straight down or in the direction of the tank but I have ruled everything else out and the issue is light bouncing off walls into the room period.

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