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Home      Reply		Viewed: 295 -- Replies: 19
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Posted	whats this????
10-08-2006 09:12 by emma123	ive had my tank up and running with fish in now for about 2 weeks and ive noticed brown spots appearing on the inside of the glass and on the stones and now on one of my living plants at first i thought it was the pellet food i was feeding the fish but ive given them a day with out food and its gotten worse plus my cobys arnt bothering with it at all so it cant be food, any idea what it is and how i can get rid? it makes the tank look horrid as i have all bright colloured gravel. any ideas? cheers in advance
10-08-2006 09:42 by von	sounds like brown algae which is normal in a new aquarium but can be a sign of not enough maintence and over feeding, check your nitrate levels you may find they are high, also cut down on feeding, the more nutrients in the water=more brown algea. Do you have an algea eater in the tank? one of these will keep it in check
10-08-2006 09:44 by emma123	have my cobys got 4 of them will they do it?
10-08-2006 10:10 by von	No, you need a plec or a siamese algae eater (Crossocheilus siamensis) they would do the trick, i really would look at your maintence routine though, how often do you change the water etc? how often are you feeing? how big is the tank and what do you keep in it?
10-08-2006 10:11 by Malawimad	Emma i used to get this when the tank got to much of natural light + Aquarium lights, If you have the resin coated gravel i find this only makes things worse.... Reduce your lighting and try and move the tank out of direct sunlight (if its in direct light) What Von has said could also be playing a big part!! Starv your fish for a few days and see if they shift it, also get a magnet on the glass.... I clean my glass daily with the magnet, i dont go overboard just keep on top of any building up!
10-08-2006 10:12 by von	you shouldn't have enough to be cleaning it daily!
10-08-2006 10:17 by Malawimad	I dont, Thats why i always just give it a quick going over, I never let the glass inside get dirty...... To be honest i never suffer with any algae in my set up, the odd bit of green here and there settleing on the rocks etc but never on the glass or plants..... Even though i cant see algae on the glass i still give it a quick going over!
10-08-2006 10:35 by emma123	water change once a week about 30% feed every morning but from the sounds of it ive been over feeding because its a different type of food that ive not used befor think ive given to much, will give them a few days with out feeding, plus there is a lot of uvb light in the room as the room is full of lizard and snake tanks so that may be doing some thing and i do have the light on for most of the day
10-08-2006 10:38 by Malawimad	From experience Emma when i have ever had the rusty/brown algae its a result of natural light!
10-08-2006 10:52 by von	do you test the water? what is the nitrate reading? could you be over stocked? Yes it can be a result of light but it is mostly caused by high nutrients in the water, one of my tanks sits in direct sunlight from around 2-5pm and has no algae! if your's has this ryan i'm guessing it's in the malawi ste up which is more than likely overstocked to reduce aggression between them and therefore your's is also a cause of nutrients in the water
10-08-2006 11:01 by Malawimad	To be honest Von..like i said earlier i'm lucky enough to not suffer with it, I get the odd bit of green on the rock but nothing major... thats just the rock turning as it should over time, it was new about 3 months ago so its just ageing! My tank is always immaculate, Just hope i can keep the new discus tank as clean! I never get brown algae anywhere,!
10-08-2006 11:03 by Malawimad	Emma.... Do you have a resin coated gravel, Just spoke to my Dad and he has said the resin on gravel can cause a brown slime/algae everywhere..... If you've got the really colourful OTT stuff then i would reccomend going for a natural pea gravel or something!
10-08-2006 11:22 by emma123	arghhhhh but it looks pretty!!!! lol no not over stocked its a 3ft tank with 2 angels 2 golden rams 2 normal rams 2 corbys and 6 tetras, will test it tonight when i get home its due a water change today any way.
10-08-2006 11:24 by emma123	oh and they are all small fish quick question if the nitrate is to high whats the best way to get it down safley?
10-08-2006 11:32 by Malawimad	Large water change emma....... Pretty isn't always best, specially, when it comes to resin gravel....its the worst gravel u can buy... Do a water change with gravel hoover, clean your glass and see how u go!
10-08-2006 11:35 by emma123	grrrrrrrrr why do lfs never tell you theses things!!!!!! thanks for the advice evry one ya all stars
10-08-2006 11:40 by von	Check the nitrate in your tap water, you could also add a nitrasafe bag to your filter, you can recharge them in salt water when no longer efective, your lfs should stock them
10-08-2006 11:41 by Malawimad	Yeh never thought of that Von.....
10-08-2006 11:56 by keith t	I use GREENX and with weekly manual removal it got rid of my brown algae. GREENX gets rid of nitrates and phosphates and lasts upto 3 months. Quite cheap aswell. I was doing regular water changes and i found that it was my tapwater giving me the problem as it was containing nitrates, phosphates and silicates. It wasnt untill i started using ro and di as all my lfs do that i totally eliminated problems. My plants now grow healthier, less algea ( brown ) and clearer water. My tapwater often had a white haze to it. This i believe is chalk. Anyone know what effects chalk has as i dont
14-08-2006 21:42 by Jo Mack	Hello, just listening in, what is a nitrasafe bag please?

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