# brown algae on glass and plants, possibly related to light (long post)



## AngelfishGuy (Oct 28, 2008)

I had a planted 25 for about a year and a half and I never even saw algae. I got a 55 long in september, and the algae is terrible. It's very dark brown, and in some places a dark orange-brown color.

I bought a gold mystery snail and have had him for about 3 weeks, and he seems to be rasping on the side of the tank but when I look there is no difference. I was bought him hoping he would eat the algae off my sword plants, but the only thing I can ever get him to eat is flake food.

Anywho, the algae is coating my glass, rocks, cryptos, water wisteria, aponogetons, echino, etc. I bought one of those hard spongy algae scrubbers and it worked great but the algae is incredibly hard to remove; I even tried using my fingertips to get some of it off but I had to press so hard I was afraid I might slip and break the glass. I eventually got the algae off the glass but I can't get it off the plants even by rubbing furiously with my fingers.

I want to find out why I have algae in my tank now, but I didn't have it in my last tank.

My last tank:
25 gallon
tetra whisper 30-60 (the largest whisper filter)
plain gravel
no co2
only ferts were fish poo and weekly dose of leaf zone
lotsa plants
the light was an eclipse natural daylight, F18/T8 24", not sure what that means
3 big angelfish, 2 batasio havmolleri, 1 glass catfish
temp around 77-80

New tank:
55 gallon
tetra whisper 30-60
plain gravel
no co2
only ferts fish poo and weekly dose of leaf zone
same amount of plants, proportionately a lot less plants though
the light is an eclipse natural daylight F40T10/48"
3 big angelfish, 2 batasio havmolleri, 1 glass catfish, 1 cherry barb, 1 golden mystery snail

there are 2 things I think might be causing the algae:
1. the proportionately lower plant mass is absorbing less nutrients than there are available, creating a surplus of nutrients for algae
or
2. the wattage to gallon ratio is different. if my 55 light is proportionately stronger than the 25 light, that would explain the algae. I'm not sure what F40T10 means, nor do I know what F18/T8 means.

any thoughts on this matter would be greatly appreciated


my 25
























I know it looks terribly tacky and tasteless, but I bought it all off of craigslist from the same person and I thought the angelfish would feel at home with the familiar decor. Also I knew practically nothing about aquariums a year ago so I put the plants wherever I felt like it.

no pics of the 55, yet


----------



## TheRac25 (Nov 5, 2008)

not sure what causes the brown stuff some say low light but more light would certainly give you other types of algae that are worse, ottos love the brown stuff.


----------



## markopolo (Jun 2, 2008)

what you have are called diatoms, do a search for them here you will find lots of stuff

those numbers on your lights have to do with wattage and size so 
F18T8 is an 18 watt bulb and its a T8 size, which i believe has a diameter of one inch. 
this means you have very low light, you might want to either use low light plants or upgrade your lighting 

im tired right now i cant think to straight have a bio midterm tomorrow good luck search around for info


----------



## madmax666 (Nov 22, 2008)

I have this too. I was thinking snails (malaysian trumpets,olive, or nerits)could have spelled those wrong but those arent suposed to eat plants. I was thinking more of snails because they dont add "too" much to ur live stock unlike otos which do love this brown algea or diatoms. Some causes are over feeding and low light are the most common.


----------

