# Brown Algae!!!!!!! Ahhh!!!!



## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

265w lighting, 6700/10000k, magnum 350 filter, angels, cardinals, had some baby turtles in there for a lil, 72 gallons of water, a graumi, lots of plants, they used to be green and now i'm battling brown algae and a tiny bit of green!!!! whats happening!?!?!?!?! AHHHH!!!! HELPP!!! GET TO THE CHOPPER!!!!!!!!!!! 

I also dosed seachems full line but Iron because I have flourite for a couple weeks actually the phosphate was even a little late in the mail so i dosed the whole line but that for a while.... ahh!!! HELPPP GET TO TEH CHOPPERR....

could the turtles have been the starter to this mess or the phosphate? I followed their dosing chart online... photoperiod was for 10 hours but reduced it to 8 hours now and do a 50% water change every sunday.


WHAT IS THE PROBLEM AND HOW DO I FIX IT!?!?!??! I HAVE PRESSURIZED C02 Too!!! planted tanks are driving me nuts!!!!!!!!!

PICTURES:

Current pictures of my anubias... their getting it bad... 





ohhh look at that really nice java moss covered in brown crap OH WAIT IS THAT RICCIA!?!? nooo brown covered riccia... 



oh and look its my pygmy chain sword, one that i replanted after 3 of them just randomly started turning clear and their green color began to fade and then they just... deteriorated... 




It just really upsets me that I put all this money and time into my tank... 
what is the problem? I have high lighting I know that but I have pressurized c02 and I followed the spectacular seachem dosing chart that I have seen pictures of from other people showing amazing looking results... I did 50% water changes every 7 freaking days 5 gallon buckets back and forth for a 72 gallon tank. even tho I probably have like 60 something gallons of water in it from so much flourite and mixed gravel... and if the turtles really did it I can barely believe that because I change the water like every freaking 7 days and a lot of it... 

someone... help me... please.


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

at least my tank used to be pretty green.... :icon_sad:


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Turtles produce too much waste for a tropical fish tank. I suspect they are at least a large part of your problem.

Have you checked your ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte levels? My guess is that even with the 50% changes your turtles are producing much more waste than your plants can keep up with.


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## Gar (Mar 3, 2008)

On top of the huge waste they produce, they will grow very, very large and eat everything you've got in there right now.

Trust me.


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

No, the brown algae really came on when I dosed the phosphate... I asked for a solution but I'm not really thinking it's the turtles... ughhh I know someone has to have a nice planted tank with turtles, that would be a sweet freaking tank and I know it's possible if the plants are rooted well enough they won't come up. My ammonia is always 0, my nitrite is always 0, and my nitrates are almost always 10 ppm or below. If turtle waste was the issue wouldn't my nitrates be sky rocketing a lot? which I have never seen them do.


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

And besides my turtles will never be able to catch my tetra's and no musk turtles only get about 3-5 inches long if that. their tiny and my cagles map is a male and will only get about the same. The angels are aggresive and eat right by them, I've had a pleco clean their shells off. They live in peace. If a turtle is more carnivorous as a youngling then I will argue that as an adult they should be able to live together. My angels will actually get probably big enough to fend for themselves and i'm sure they will against the turtles... There is only one thing i'm worried about... the turtles shells getting a little little too big to fit through plants and then that would be an issue because they wouldn't be able to get around on the bottom much unless I only had a few mid ground plants and a lot of foreground/very far to the back background plants. Musk turtles are mainly carnivorous so they won't eat my plants... only mess with them once in awhile. Which is not a problem if it's attached to drift wood or rooted really well. Most of the day they spend their time foraging the bottom of the tank not disturbing the plants. The cagles will bask most of the day and then just sleep and swim not much of a forager on the bottom. Planted tanks are beautiful but so are turtles... to keep both together would be amazing and i will try to accomplish this.


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

dude i said i had a 12 hour photo period for a long time but now I cut it down to 8 hours... and yes i have pressurized I have it going into my magnum 350 filter and i'm going about 3-5 bubbles per second it's hard to even count them... pressurized... 

and yes isn't phosphate known to cause brown algae???!??!? ahhhh!


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

just did some reading, seems it's from excess proteins... turtle food has a lot of protein food in it and I think this could be the cause along with phosphate...


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## stagius (Nov 26, 2007)

I think you have reached the biomass limit in your tank. Ammonia is what I believed the cause of brown algae, although i did not find any source support this. 

I would try to remove manually as much brown algae as possible. Find any death fish in tank.Then doing a large water change. If it is possible, get ton of oto fish, i know they do love this stuffs.

btw, what kind of filter are you using right now?


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

here is a really cool article... basically I ended up with what austin calls the most compatible turtles... 

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Articles/plantedturtletanks.htm

I should be feeding my turtles every other day, I will and i'll see what happens.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Brown algae is diatomacious algae, BTW.

Those pics don't look much like algae to me- they look like poo and/or uneaten food.

Again, not a good tank for turtles.


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

I wrote earlier, magnum 350... maybe i'm not getting enough c02 into the tank but i think i am... i have it pretty cranked up... and it's getting fed into the magnum 350 filter intake strainer... I think I have too and I have been feeding my turtles a lot when I really only need to feed them about once every other day when i have been feeding them twice a day or more really just keeping them happy but not overfeeding them... I have decided to reduce to once every other day, scrape the brown algae off as most I can, dose excell a lot more, photo period 8 hours, already bought oto's the other day but will buy 6 more tomorrow... since crude protein is about 42.5% in the pellet food I will really cut back on that... and maybe just dose flourish if any fert at all for awhile.


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

if you think that's poo then I think i'm asking the wrong person... or your just not really giving me good advice.


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## mpodolan (Mar 27, 2007)

Does the algae rub off really easily? Diatoms will come off if you just run your finger across them


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

just got about 10 new oto's and silicate remover for my magnum 350 that i'm gonna mix with some new charcoal to see if that is the problem if it's not i'll look for an excess of proteins.

- max


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## Stasiu (Sep 9, 2007)

I doubt it's excess proteins if your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are fine. Protein looses it's amino group very quickly in water as it decomposes, resulting in high ammonia levels.


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## loachlady5 (Dec 9, 2007)

stagius said:


> I think you have reached the biomass limit in your tank. Ammonia is what I believed the cause of brown algae, although i did not find any source support this. ...


You're right. Here's one:
http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm

But this one doesn't mention ammonia - only silicates and phosphates:
http://aquariumalgae.blogspot.com/2006/03/brown-algae.html


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## loachlady5 (Dec 9, 2007)

lauraleellbp said:


> ...Those pics don't look much like algae to me- they look like poo and/or uneaten food...


I agree. It doesn't look much like the diatom algae I've had.


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## mpodolan (Mar 27, 2007)

loachlady5 said:


> I agree. It doesn't look much like the diatom algae I've had.


This is why I was wondering if it rubs off easily. More info is always helpful. A positive ID is important when battling algae


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

nope doesn't really really easily scrape off but i can scrape it off with a finger nail... i'm gonna see if the silicate remover helps


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## stagius (Nov 26, 2007)

so it might not brown algae anymore. Brown algae is very to scrape off in most of the case.

Do you notice any kind of brown/green hair on the leaves ?


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## Lee (Feb 13, 2007)

1. Reduce your lighting to 2.5 w/gal
2. make sure you have 30 ppm co2 throughout the day
3. test for nitrate an phosphate make sure you have the right levels
4. buy Otocinclus Catfish 15 or 20, they specialize in brown algae!


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## loachlady5 (Dec 9, 2007)

stagius said:


> so it might not brown algae anymore. Brown algae is very to scrape off in most of the case.
> 
> Do you notice any kind of brown/green hair on the leaves ?


Agreed. I don't think it's diatom.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Looks to me like decomposing turtle food and poop.

But I'll leave it alone now- no point in repeating myself about the mix.

GL

Please wash your hands alot.


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## pecelfavoritku (Oct 6, 2007)

If it's algae then you should try Tetra Algimin every weeks 'till four weeks you'll see reducing of the algae. thanks.


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