Ive got stains!!

[gearyboy]

After 4 weeks of my tank running 2 weeks without fish 2 with (6 zebra danios) I have brown stains on my tank, rocks and plastic plants. All my water readings are spot on!

1) What are these stains?
2) Take out the above objects and clean? except the tank and use my magfloat?
3) Do they affect the fish?

Cheers matt

 

[Fella]

Do a google search for "Diatoms".

 

[modernhamlet]

Yup. Just about every tank gets some brown algae in the early months. Give it a little time... it'll turn green.

 

[gearyboy]

do i just take out the rocks + p.plants and clean them? fish water or tap water?

 

[Fella]

do i just take out the rocks + p.plants and clean them? fish water or tap water?

[snapback]926384[/snapback]​

I think most people leave them in. After afew weeks they *should* disappear. They're quite common in newly set up tanks. Have a look in the planted forum for the pinned topic on algae

 

[Durbkat]

I had that same problem in my 10g. All I did was scrub with a aquarium sponge to get it off the walls and things. Is the tank near a window or can light get to the tank? How long do you keep the light on during the day, do you have it on at night? Because my 10g at first was near a window and light got to it all the time and their was brown algae all over the tank and rocks and plants. So I moved it to a part of the room where it couldn't get any light to it but the algae still came so I found out the second reason it was getting brown algae was because I turned the tank light on at around 7am and didn't turn it off till 10pm. So that was another reason so I cut time back to 8 hours a day and some of it turned to green algae so I got a common pleco (I was new to hobby didn't know that a common pleco got to be 2ft long) so he cleaned up the brown and green algae and kept the tank clean. But do not, I repeat do not get a common pleco unless you have a 100g tank to put him in as he grows. This pleco is still alive and cleaning in my long 20g and their is no algae in sight. So you could get a otto to clean up the algae. And just answer my question that I started out this post with and I'll be able to help you.

 

[gearyboy]

I tend to have it on between 8-12 hours a day in the day, it goes off at night. My tank is facing a window about 5 metres away but doesnt let full light in as there are nets up

 

[Durbkat]

Well even that little bit of light can cause the algae to grow.

 

[Hopester]

I had a lot of algae when my tank first got started

My bristlenosed catfish sorted all that out and my tank is now spotless