Brown Spots on my Aquarium Decor

pumpkin14 · 07-03-2009, 01:43 PM

I recently noticed some brown spots appearing on my aquarium decorations. I did a little research and found out that it might be brown algae, which is caused by insufficient light or overfeeding. Now, I'm not sure if what I've got is brown algae, but if it is, it doesn't make sense for it to be in my tank. I leave my aquarium light on all day and turn it off around midnight every night. As for overfeeding, I am currently feeding my fish once every four days because I'm trying to fix my nitrite/ammonia levels as per advice from my LFS.

If it is brown algae, will my Chinese Algae Eater and Yo-Yo Loach be able to take care of it?

sublime guy · 07-03-2009, 02:13 PM

im not sure about your yoyo loach but i have never herd anything good about chinese algae eaters and the biggest one being that they almost never aet algae. try finding a nice pleco they usally do good at algae clean up like that.
do some research because some do better than others

**ron v** · 07-03-2009, 02:41 PM

Insufficent light can be caused by the strength of your light as well as the length of time it is on. What are you doing to "fix" ammonia and nitrite?

_Jay · 07-03-2009, 02:57 PM

IME...Brown "algae" is almost always diatoms. How old is the tank?

Brown algae or "diatoms" are usually appear in a new tank 0 - 4 months old.

Can you give us some more specific information...,

age of tank
NO3
Substrate
Light...watts etc.

Diatoms are easy to deal with...but we need an accurate set of tank parameters to help

Jay

pumpkin14 · 07-03-2009, 09:30 PM

I've had the tank for almost 2 months. As for nitrites, I just did a 50% water change today so I'm not sure what the level is anymore. I have had some issues with nitrite and ammonia so I ended up doing a 100% water change about two weeks ago, and cleaned the gravel and decorations. Once I changed it, everything was at zero (obviously) but I ran out of test strips and haven't had the chance or the money to purchase more.

I don't really know what kind of light I have... it came with the tank. It seems to be fluorescent though.

Thanks for all your help.

**emc7** · 07-03-2009, 10:53 PM

Brown algae is diatoms and its unsightly but not harmful to fish. And sometimes it will go away on its own. So take care of your ammonia & nitrite issues and put off dealing with the brown stuff for a few weeks and see what happens.