Brown algae

I have this nasty brown algae sort of taking over my 150 gallon. It isn't diatoms. It looks like more filamentous algae, kind of bushy and stringy, but it's brown. Nasty looking stuff.

Water is darn near perfect, with NH3, NO3, and NO2 all reading zero. Lots of tannins in the water. Lights are on five hours, off one, on six. The new light fixture is fairly dim compared to what I had in the past, so I don't think too much light is the problem. Could the problem be too little light?

Further background which might or might not matter: A lot of the plants are struggling. Amazon swords and floaters are doing well, but most of the lower growing plants aren't. Dirt under sand substrate.

Ideas?

Probably a type of black brush algae, many call this "brown algae", can you post photo(s)?

Doesn't look like the BBA I've had before, Byron. I'll try to get a few pics up later.
t

Is it like long strings of brown hair? Look up brown hair algea and see if it looks the same.

Currently have that in my new tank because the lighting is too dim and there is a lot of organic gunk and nutrients floating around in it (no fish in there, new tank waiting for plants to grow and new kit to arrive).

Could be a similar issue with you considering you are saying the plants lower down are now struggling. Not enough light for the plants all of a sudden so they aren't using nutrients as quickly which means more for the algae to take hold.

Test kits could be showing zero readings because the algae is taking care of it and growing.

If the plants that are struggling have dead bits on give them a trim up. Remove and clean out what algae you can and assuming you aren't injecting CO2 increase water flow and surface movement to oxygenated the water a bit more. That will help with hair algae and won't hurt if it is any other type.

It could also maybe be staghorm algae? In my experience I only had this in high nutrient/high light tanks where I didn't have enough CO2.


Edit: also if I'm reading right you have 11 total hours of light on a day? If so I would cut it down. Generally on my planted tanks I go for 6 to 8 hours a day. Any more doesn't get any better plant growth but will almost always cause algae issues.

Might be brown hair. It isn't staghorn. I'm ordering a new light fixture today, so we'll see if that helps. Thanks!
T

WhistlingBadger said:

Might be brown hair. It isn't staghorn. I'm ordering a new light fixture today, so we'll see if that helps. Thanks!
T

Click to expand...

No worries. Cutting the light cycle down and increase oxygenation of the water will probably take care of most of it.

WhistlingBadger said:

Might be brown hair. It isn't staghorn. I'm ordering a new light fixture today, so we'll see if that helps. Thanks!
T

Click to expand...

Would you still be able to post pics please?

Not that I'd be any help at all, but I'm trying to picture it in my head, and would like to learn more too

Was pulling a load of hair algae from one of my tanks today too. It's been a constant war with (green) hair algae in that tank since I first set up, but it ebbs and flows. A bottle brush does a pretty good job of removing most of it though, but means I have to keep on top of it, and it's annoying. I must sort out a timer for the lights.

I should mention a problem with this dual-light period. The so-called siesta approach. This is really bad for fish, because it disturbs their circadian rhythm. Plants can adjust to these wierd things, but not fish. The "daylight" when the brightest tank light is on should be one continuous period. Then dawn and dusk of whatever length with the period of total darkness continuous at the opposite end of the daylight.

Byron said:

I should mention a problem with this dual-light period. The so-called siesta approach. This is really bad for fish, because it disturbs their circadian rhythm. Plants can adjust to these wierd things, but not fish. The "daylight" when the brightest tank light is on should be one continuous period. Then dawn and dusk of whatever length with the period of total darkness continuous at the opposite end of the daylight.

Click to expand...

It isn't total darkness; the room lights are still on. Ever been in a tropical rainstorm?

We need pics

Plant the tank out. The more plant the better. Just have a 10 hour on 14 hour off cycle. Put a couple of air stones into the tank. Algae hates oxygen. Do what ever you can to increase the oxygen content of your tank.

Byron said:

I should mention a problem with this dual-light period. The so-called siesta approach.

Click to expand...

I have to say I agree with this. I have used a "siesta" on non-CO2 tanks following the common wisdom that a mid photo period break will allow CO2 levels to build back up and get better plant growth.

Some people also say that breaking the photo period up effects algae more than the plants.

In my experience cutting the lights on and off effects the plants way more than the algae. You can notice it more with some plants than others but they take awhile to "wake up" and get going (look at plants where the leaves open/close during light/dark periods). Turning the light off mid cycle puts them back into "darkness" mode which then means they take awhile to get going again for the second photo period. Algae doesn't seem to have this issue as it is a much simpler organism.

Also I found that the CO2 build up during this time wasn't really worth it. I had much better results with just a solid 6-8 hour photo period. Better plant growth and less algae.

Just my personal experience though.

Here are a few pics of the bad stuff. Not great pics, I'm afraid, just snaps with my phone.

More...

Yeah looks like a mix of brown hair algae and a bit of diatoms to me so all the above advice should help. Try and remove what you can by hand, particularly on the leaves.

I normally turn off the filters, go to town with a toothbrush to get it all free floating and then vac it up with a water change. This is the easiest way I have found. Its normally pretty easy to remove from things as its not too sticky.

If you have a spare pump or power head to add some more water flow that will help too.