Does anyone know the biggest factors for brown algae? I have a 65 gal with two clowns and like 3-4 frags. Im getting a really bad brown algae outbreak that Im at this point going to have to strip the tank to get rid of. Its not like all over crazy, but it unsightly to me. Im not sure what I did wrong really. I may have overfed my fish for a a few days but now they eat everything up no problem. Are my lights too bright? I really want to avoid this in the future.
Brown Algae
- Thread starter LFCBVB
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Quietman
2500 Club Member
How long has your tank been set up? Nutrient parameters (NO3/PO4)? Pictures?
If it's just last few months, then it's likely diatoms (need a picture to tell for sure). If it is, then there's nothing you did wrong and nothing you can do, your tank just needs to find it's balance and they'll go away...but it can take weeks before all gone. Has to do with bio available silicates. You can go dark for a few days at a time, I found this helped but didn't eliminate and manual cleaning of course. There are treatments discussed (Peroxide) glad I didn't proceed with those as everyone was right...they go away.
It could be other harder to eliminate algae (dino's for instance). Need that picture as there are many types.
If it's just last few months, then it's likely diatoms (need a picture to tell for sure). If it is, then there's nothing you did wrong and nothing you can do, your tank just needs to find it's balance and they'll go away...but it can take weeks before all gone. Has to do with bio available silicates. You can go dark for a few days at a time, I found this helped but didn't eliminate and manual cleaning of course. There are treatments discussed (Peroxide) glad I didn't proceed with those as everyone was right...they go away.
It could be other harder to eliminate algae (dino's for instance). Need that picture as there are many types.
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Okay sorry for quality I did my best turning up the white.NH3 about .25(consistently this color for 2 weeks after cycle).NO2 also about .25 or .50. NO3 between 0-5 hard to tell with these tests.
It looks like the tank is fairly new. You are going to have stuff grow until your corals and coraline out compete the algae for nutrients and space. You can turn down the white light which will slow algae growth a bit. Corals will do just fine with a lot of blue instead of white. The algae looks like green film stuff which is one of the first to grow.
