Brown Algae

[wellmax]

Hi Everyone, My tank now has been established and running nicely now for four months. In the beginning my lighting was on for five hours a day then brown agae appeared to grow on rocks and plants. I increased the light time to 8 hours a day. To me this has made the problem worse. Does anyone have a solution?

My tank is an Aqua One 880, 300 litres. Regards Wellmax

[N1CK]

It's quite common in new tanks, my ones got a little bit in it at the moment

The causes are:

Not enough light

Low oxygen levels

And excess silicates and nitrates

(otos and plecos will eat it as well)

[wellmax]

Hi Nick, my nitrate levels are zero but how do I go about eliminating the silicate level?? Regards.

[phoenix44]

can you do a phosphate test reading?

also, adding plants to your tank will help with that.

HTH

[smidey]

mine new tanks have the brown algae for a few weeks then it disappears.

[wellmax]

Hi Everyone, I found this article while surfing the net. An article that will interest many here. Regards Wellmax.

http://www.aquariumsecrets.com/carbon_phosphates.htm

Carbon Products and Phosphates

Thanks to Dave M. for this insight!

Dear Jennifer,

I couldn't help read article about "Clear Aquarium Water", as it brought back many months of memories and months of experimenting with the water chemistry of my 80 gallon aquarium.

I am willing to bet a substantial amount of money that the majority of the freshwater aquarium owners don't know that one of the worst things to use in an aquarium is "Activated Carbon", sometimes referred to as charcoal carbon! All carbon products used in the filtration process contain PHOSPHATE(S). If any carbon product, regardless of price or brand, state, "Does Not Contain or leach PHOSPHATE", than that manufacturer is lying and should be penalized for false advertising!

I have spends oodles of time and money on plants and PHOSPHATE removal chemicals because my aquarium water had a rather high PHOSPHATE level and I just couldn't seem to bring the level down or eliminate the algae problem. My water was hardly ever crystal clear, so I kept adding more carbon to the filtration system and using a high dosage of PHOSPHATE remover, which was also in my filtration system. Little did I know, at the time, that while I was removing the PHOSPHATE with the PHOSPHATE removal product(s), I was, at the same time, adding more PHOSPHATE than I was removing! I might also add, that my monthly water changes of 35% didn't make any

difference at all.

After some research, via the internet, I finally realized that the PHOSPHATE problem was NOT due to over-feeding, or our drinking water, but the activated filter carbon itself! I came to this conclusion because my nitrate and nitrite levels were zero. My PH was 7.2-7.1. My biological filter was working perfectly! (Still the water was not crystal clear because it had high amounts of PHOSPHATE, which also makes aquarium water a little on the cloudy side, due to the presence

of algae).

As we all know (or should know), algae problems are caused by a combination of three major ingredients and those are: too much light, high nitrate level and high PHOSPHATE. If any one of these three mentioned conditions exists, the water will have an algae problem, along with being on the cloudy side.

The first thing a person does to help clear-up "cloudy water" is add activated carbon. Yes, in time, it will clear-up and polish water, but while this carbon is running through filter, you add adding a significant amount of PHOSPHATE and algae problem will get worse than it was before you started using the carbon and soon, water will become cloudy again, once the carbon breaks-down.

Now, my plants are growing beautifully! They are lush, green and healthy. My algae problem has vanished almost completely! The water is clear.

I use no activated carbon at all in my filters! I do my monthly 35% water changes and periodically check my PH and, yes, PHOSPHATE presence. (I always keep a small bag of PHOSPHATE removal in my filter to make sure that the water is PHOSPHATE-FREE).

Sincerely yours,

Dave M.