Brown stuff on plants

[Tazman12]

my tank is about 10 weeks old and it just started to get some brown stuff on
the plants.

It's not all over it has just started.

What can I do about this.

Thanks

 

[Sinuhe]

Is it a thin layer that rubs off easily? It is common to get that to new tanks at some point, but it might also be a sign of too little light. How big is your tank, and how much lighting do you have? It's sometimes called "brown algae", but it's not really an algae.

 

[Tazman12]

It's a 30 gallon tank and yes it does come off the plants easily.

as far as lighting it is not in direct sunlight and I use a fleuresant bulb.

Should I just leave this for now and see what happen's or will it get worst.

Is there something I can do to prevent this.

Thanks

 

[Sinuhe]

How many Watts is the bulb? If the amount of light for the amount of gallons is low, a way to prevent the brown stuff from appearing would be to add more wattage.

 

[Tazman12]

I checked the bulb and it doesn't say how many watts it just says Natural Light on it

 

[Tazman12]

I found the bulb type in the manual.

it says its a T8 ot T12 tubular daylight fluorescent lamp tated at 20 watts minimum.

 

[Sinuhe]

20 Watts is a bit low for 30 gallons if you're keeping live plants. I recommend adding another tube (you may need a new lighting fixture for that). Whether the brown stuff is caused by low light or not, the amount of light will be too little in the long run, at least with most live plants. I have a 33 gallon tank with 2 pieces of 15 Watt fluorescent tubes, and it's a bit low.

It's not a serious problem if you ask me, you can just leave the stuff there, or get some algae eating fish that will eat it (Otos seem to be good at eating the brown stuff, they do for me). Or you can just rub it off manually.

 

[Moe]

Bristlenose pleco also eat brown algae. And apple snails if they are fake plants in the tank. How many hours a day are you leaving the lights on? They should be on about 10 - 12 hours a day.