Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: steven on October 09, 2014, 08:51:26 PM
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I started a new tank about a month ago and used the fishless cycle. Still got a bit of ammonia but it's going down. Problem is brown algie has taken over. I cleaned it and did a water change but it come back like mad. Any suggestions?
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Hey and welcome..do you have any plants in?
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Hi I have some plants in but they are completely covered by the brown stuff.
I took them out and washed them off, cleaned the glass and used a pump on the gravel, but within a few days they were all covered againl
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What people usually call brown algae are actually diatoms. They are very common in new tanks, but almost always disappear when the tanks has been up and running for a while. A newly set up tank is a fairly chaotic system both chemically and biologically until it settles down and diatoms are among the opportunistic organisms that can take advantage of this and multiply extremely quickly, then die out as things settle down. I'd just leave them for now, you can't remove all of them and any left will only multiply again. When the plants are growing strongly and fish are in, they should disappear, that's my experience.
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When the plants are growing strongly and fish are in, they should disappear, that's my experience.
...and mine. Diatoms like Ammonia, so once your tank is fully cycled they'll die off.
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Thanks guys. That's one less thing to be stressed about. I'm hoping to add fish in a week or so depending on the cycle. doing a fishless cycle seems to have taken ages but if it saves fish it's worth it.