# brown algae soft and pillowy hate it I do!



## mikey (Mar 14, 2004)

These pictures show the brown thread algae after about 24 hours of not removing it. Any suggestions?

stopped dosing traces 1 week ago (was dosing 3-4ml flourish 2x/week )
PO4 at 2ppm
NO3 at 5-10ppm
pH at 6.6
KH 4
CO2 at 35 to 40 ppm
lights 3 wpg at 9 hrs / day
plants growing great
have had this algae for 6 weeks and remove it twice daily

can you help? It is really making me unhappppppppy


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## Left C (Nov 15, 2003)

I believe oto's love to snack on that stuff.


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## mikey (Mar 14, 2004)

got 4 of 'em. They are growing fast and are fat and happy. Don't seem to eat the brown stuff however.


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## bgssamson (Mar 16, 2004)

Mikey,

Otto, Cherry Shrimps & Amano Shrimps are a great team for this job! don't feed them & they will clean that algae in no time.

-Brian


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## BrentK (Aug 17, 2005)

I have about 24 ottos in a 135g tank (started with 6 and they bred like rabbits) and they won't touch the stuff. I don't feed the ottos and watch them eat away my green spot algae and brownish stuff on leaves... but won't touch the stuff in the pictures in my tank (I thought that kind was hair or staghorn algae). I had always thought ottos and the like won't touch the hairy algaes and one needs SAE's or shrimp for those.


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## Jason Baliban (Mar 3, 2005)

I have some similar stuff in my tank. It is the green version. I have a dozen amano shrimp in the mail to try to address this. Hopefully they like the taste. If you PM me I will be happy to let you know if they eat the stuff. 

jB


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## mikey (Mar 14, 2004)

Isn't there some way to make this stuff go away by doing something to the water parameters? I mean, I think I have most of them where they belong, but maybe not? And wheather I do or do not, isn't there a way to get the water, or dosing, or parameters set to a level that prevents the growth. I mean one can't spend 20 minutes every day pulling this stuff out of the tank just to keep pace ...... can one?????


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## jgc (Jul 6, 2005)

might just pay for am membership to start a post - my algea is thicker than yours...

Mine is green though, and is growing like mad. My tank is still cycling, plants are filling in ect. so I still have hope. Had 3 ottos for cleanup, but last week added another 5 ottos, 3 amano shrimp, 4 sae, and 2 molleys :icon_roll (ok kid fish). 

So far the Angle fish are eating it the most, followed by the molleys - not sure if any of the algae eaters are snacking on it or not - but they are much smaller (which is sad, smaller than a molley).

58 gallon, 250 watt hqi 10k, presurized co2, ladder, started ei 9/6/05


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Not sure if the tank is ghost shrimp safe (no large fish like kribensis). Over here, I can get them for 10c as "feeders". I am pretty sure they eat that stuff.
Other than that, my usual recommendation... patience... it will go away.


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## rrguymon (Jul 10, 2005)

I have some of this too Growing on my Eco complete. I don't have near as much though. Can anyone say what type of algae it is and what the real fix is besides trying to get fish to eat it haha.


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## mikey (Mar 14, 2004)

As usual, thanks all for your time to post. I am going to try no ferts until it stops growing (patience as Wasser says too). Maybe I can starve this crap. If not, ....... well its still a little early in the game to threaten my tank with severe consequences just yet!!!


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## bigstick120 (May 23, 2005)

mikey said:


> As usual, thanks all for your time to post. I am going to try no ferts until it stops growing (patience as Wasser says too). Maybe I can starve this crap. If not, ....... well its still a little early in the game to threaten my tank with severe consequences just yet!!!



I dont know if that is the best idea, you will be starving your plants as well. Have you tried Excel as a treatment, it works, I dont know if it will work for this type of alage but it works for BGA


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## BrentK (Aug 17, 2005)

For what its worth.... I am in week 3 of doing the EI method, and my thread algae is nearly gone. I have plenty of BBA still, but I am finally through my big thread bloom.


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## Louis (May 1, 2004)

i have this in my tank too except its kind of a cross between green and brown. for me it looks almost liek whisps of smoke in the water. i also think i have diatoms but as a result the copepods which live in there are flourishing, im not too owrried about the algae just now is the tank is set up waiting for some cherry shrimp. mwuha!


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## riverrat (Jul 14, 2005)

I have had this stuff also. I think I am winning the battle on it as I type this. roud: 

My tank is only about 6 weeks old and I am new to planted tanks. I think this crap arrived in my tank at around 3 weeks from setup. Finally a couple of weeks ago I decided to up my co2 even though my test for ph and kh had it close to 40ppm at the time. On a Saturday I increased my co2 flow and watched my fish. I only have ottos at this time. I tested later that day and my co2 came to 70ppm (derived from ph and kh). My fish were not phased at all. This leads me to believe that my ph test is bogus. 

Since I have increased my co2 I am not getting any new growth of brown hair algae. It appears that it is breaking up a little bit on its own. I have been pruning plants and fluffing them prior to water changes and this seem to be removing the left over brown hair. The only place I have it still is in my pearl grass a little. I think this week or next some time I will try to finish this stuff off by pulling my pearl grass pruning and replanting. 

I would try removing as much as possible manually and then trying to up your co2. Watch your fish and if they begin showing stress back it down again. I think sometimes we depend on tests to much and for all I know I am color blind. Trying to determin a shade of difference or the tests that fall between to shades is just to iffy. 

By the way I am now in the market for a good ph probe so I can really get my ph reading by just reading a number and not pulling out my color wheel of lies.

Good luck and let us all know if you beat it and how.


river


P.S. I thought my plants were growing good too. Ha!... now they are growing unremarkably!!!!! :bounce:


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## Louis (May 1, 2004)

i spoke to soon. i have decided that i hate this stuff. i went away for a couple of days and when i got back it has made some of my java moss turn yellow. its getting a battar this week.


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## mikey (Mar 14, 2004)

well I dig that! Everyone's got to hate it.

hey riverrat:

me too exactly. Upped my CO2 way up - derived 50ppm+ and didn't phase any of my guys either. I guess i'll have to agree that the tests are way too iffy. Ya can kind a tell the direction that things are moving, but as for an exact number - forget it.

Just to mention and not to jinx myself in the process but I stopped dosing flourish for the last 8 days or so. And .... over the last few days the brown stuff seems to be slowing down noticebly. . May have something to do with too much iron in the eco-complete already? I don't test for fe. Also have been keeping my NO3 and PO4 a little lower.

It is funny, you can stop dosing for days, and the test kits seem to barely budge. Its like there is a magic component to all this aquarium keeping stuff.


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## Bastian (May 2, 2009)

I got this algae aswell at the moment. Hopefully some refreshing with RO water and adding some oto's will help. 
Already found a solution?

Greetz,

Bastian


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## accordztech (Dec 6, 2004)

i got this brown stuff to. one day i turned off the tank and didnt dose for 2 days and it was gone. then it came back lol

but every 50% weekly water change i take out at least 85% of that algae stuff and it seems to be under control using my siphon it comes off rather easilly. I dont have any fish to eat it at the moment.


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## accordztech (Dec 6, 2004)

lol i just went to look at my tank, i got a butt load of algae now lol 

Im going to buy another ph test kit to really see if my ph is at where it should be, i calculated it with the kh to read my co2 and its at 77ppm. 

ill let you guys know later on the ghost shrimp, ill pick a bunch up today and see if they eat this stuff.


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## leaf (Jun 27, 2009)

I've got this algae controlled by cleaning plant surfaces during wc, increased water flow to keep detritus suspended, and more frequent trimming (less drastic cutbacks). I'm pretty sure a couple amanos would finish the job I started.


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## Lissette (Apr 2, 2005)

I had this algae too. What a nightmare! It covered all the plants. I had the green kind, which lasted about 2 months. I did lots of water changes before this sucker disappeared. I read somewhere that it's because of lack of maintenance. I don't know if this is true, because I'm always cleaning the tank.



Lissette


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## Postal Penguin (Mar 30, 2009)

Have this same crap in my tank. I believe it is due to low CO2 since the past week or so I have been fiddling with diffusion methods and that is when this stuff really exploded. 

The good news is that peroxide kills this stuff easily. Within an hour of treatment, it went from brown to a grayish green which hopefully means: dead.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I had this stuff in my betta tank. I used h202 on it and upped the water flow. The water flow really helps more than anything else I've tried. My betta hated it, but the algae went away. When I had to take off the filter due to his old age, the Rhizoclonium came back. After he passed, I put back on the high powered filter and it went away again.


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## tusk (Jan 30, 2006)

I have this creap up also. I've never really seen what it's called but have always wanted to know. 

I've heard flow helps, but I have 2 FX5s on my 110 gallon. I'd like to think I have plenty of output.


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## Anupam (Nov 5, 2008)

I haven't read all of the posts but I'd suggest trying to find the root cause rather than focusing on fish/shrimp that'll eat it. Also, stopping fertilization doesn't seem like a good idea - you are starving your plants and giving the algae an edge. Remember that plants need NPK+traces+CO2+light to be in the proper ratio while algae thrive on imbalances among these. 

You might cut down on phosphates a tad and increase nitrates a bit. Also make sure there are no suspended silicates in the tank - if necessary use a micron filter pad in your filter. And you might fight the algae with spot dosing of excel or hydrogen peroxide.


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## Joetee (Mar 28, 2006)

My tank has been running for many months now, maybe a year, and I have been battling this dark fluffy algae for ever is seems. I stopped all ferts for over a month, and it grew even faster. I have increased my regular EI dosing and added extra FE and it seems to have helped quit a bit. I still have some, but it doesn't grow as fast.
I stir the tank up quit a bit at water change to get it all mixed in the water column to be sucked out. Then blast it everywhere with the new water at it enters the tank. I only fill it up until all the plants are back under water and let the filter get as much of it as possible and then blast it again several times, letting the filter get most of it, until the tank is full. I try to net out as much of the larger pieces as I can. Clean the filter often.
This seems to be helping, but I still don't know what this fluffy algae is called, or how to correct the problem that is causing it.
I have three tanks and only have this is one.
Increasing the ferts and fe seems to help a lot.
Stopped dosing Excel and plain Flourish seems to have helped also.
Joe


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Joetee said:


> My tank has been running for many months now, maybe a year, and I have been battling this dark fluffy algae for ever is seems. I stopped all ferts for over a month, and it grew even faster. I have increased my regular EI dosing and added extra FE and it seems to have helped quit a bit. I still have some, but it doesn't grow as fast.
> I stir the tank up quit a bit at water change to get it all mixed in the water column to be sucked out. Then blast it everywhere with the new water at it enters the tank. I only fill it up until all the plants are back under water and let the filter get as much of it as possible and then blast it again several times, letting the filter get most of it, until the tank is full. I try to net out as much of the larger pieces as I can. Clean the filter often.
> This seems to be helping, but I still don't know what this fluffy algae is called, or how to correct the problem that is causing it.
> I have three tanks and only have this is one.
> ...


I have it too.. seems like nothing can get rid of it for me. Been battling it for months. Mine is brown in the water, but when you take it out and let it dry out it turns green. Does anyone even know what it is? It's not diatoms.


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## JeffHB (Feb 11, 2011)

Stop using tap water and go with 100 RO/DI with replinish.....and remove any in tank source of silica...no silicates, no diatom right? There are many,many ,many etc. variety of diatom so appearance may vary. best of luck, I'm fighting this war too..


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

JeffHB said:


> Stop using tap water and go with 100 RO/DI with replinish.....and remove any in tank source of silica...no silicates, no diatom right? There are many,many ,many etc. variety of diatom so appearance may vary. best of luck, I'm fighting this war too..


I'm using 100% bottled (RO) water. I'm pretty sure this is not diatoms.


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## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

This algae is a common form of diatom algae - very common in new aquariums with new bio filter media / carbon etc (almost always a certainty to occur).

If left too long alone, it will become a growth bed for green algae and become significantly more difficult to remove.

The solution is to manually remove as much as you can during a water change, and add as many Amano shrimp as you can (15 are recommended for a 20 gallon tank). The algae should clear within 24-48 hours.


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## JeffHB (Feb 11, 2011)

You may be right, I am no expert for sure...consider looking at some saltwater reef forms as they deal with "algea" with similar appearence, which they consider diatomatic. In there experiences, silicates enter the environment through both water change and in-tank methods. IMO if it was an algea, you would have been bombed with can responses for dealing with it by now...


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