I have been having a problem with brown and some red algae I think growing in my tank. There is a little green algae, but not much. I have cleaned the brown algae out a few times only to have it grow back. I was trying to get some green algae growth on the rocks. Is there something I can do to get rid of the brown and red algae to have mostly the green algae?

I do remember reading somewhere that brown algae thrives in lower light, and that increasing the amount of light in the tank causes brown algae to be pushed aside by green algae.

PGA, I'll defer to the real experts who will weigh in as they see your post. I'd be cautious about taking my "I remember from somewhere..." input too seriously until it's validated by far more experienced aquarists. I also know that over-doing the light can produce a pea-soup aquarium!

Hope this helps start the process....

Don

Don, your "I remember from somewhere..." advise is pretty good. Good Job

PGA, you deffinitely don't have enough light to promote green algea growth. It is a very fine borderline how much light you need until it is too much. The other problem is the tank size. The smaller the tank is the least control you have.
Just increase it a bit at a time and see what happens.

Good luck Cheers!!!

PGA how old is your tank setup? Sometimes in new setups that have "brown algae" is actually considered diatoms. Give the red algae time and it will turn to green. The diatoms will eventually go away. My tank is only 6 months old and I'm still fighting with diatoms, they are more a pain in the butt! By the way what size tank do you have? How many watts of lighting? How long do you keep your lights on?

My tank is 55gal and I have 260W of light I believe. It's about 3-4months old if I remember correctly, so I guess it could be diatoms if that's the case. I guess I have to just allow time for them to go away?

:: Evil laugh ::

I'm about to set up a 55G. I'm going to listen to the advice given to PGA on how many watts of light for how many hours a day will balance the algae properly, and then I will steal the wisdom for myself! :ph43r:

It sounds most likely like diatoms to me...how many hours do you leave your lights on? You have plenty of watts so that's not the problem. I would just keep cleaning the unsightly brown stuff off of the glass but let it rest on the rocks eventually that will all change to beautiful green stuff (and I don't mean money)!!

A good thing to go by is 2 watts per gallon minimum wattage, now how long you want to leave your lights on is up to you on how much growth you want.

I have 180w on a 90 gallon for 10 hrs. a day. My tank has no direct sunlight, and I have the exact amount of green that I want! I could add another 180w for more carpets of green, but I think that would be too much for me.

I did have a 55 gallon that only had 30 watts @ 10 hrs. a day and I couldn't grow anything in there, except for fish!! On the Floor Laughing

Good information, Cturner! the Clap

PGA, 260 watts sounds like a lot to me. What type of lighting is it?

It's 2 X 65W 6700K and 2 X 65W Actinic lights. They're on about 10 hours a day on a timer. It would appear I have to wait it out, though I saw some who would disagree. And I guess there's nothing that can be done to really push back the growth of diatoms?

I'm not sure where you are located but if you get loads of sunshine take a few rocks out of your tank and place them in water outside in direct sunlight. That will help jumpstart the process of growning green! You shouldn't have to wait to long then. Good Job

I am presently running a personal 'Brown algae' experiment in my 75G.

I first had this prob running rampent in my 75G which was useing 1 white 1 pink bulb...after finding out the pink was for plant growth, i switched it to blue.

Rather than cleaning the brown algae away , I decided to light it and leave it..and see what happens. (btw...in this tank are Haps, and no pleco). I have read posts in which people had said, if you light the brown for aprox 8hrs a day, it will soon turn into green.

Experiment is going well so far, thick layer of brown covering alot of my rocks, which is turning to green. Been doing this for about 2weeks.


Just thought I'd share.

Andrew

Good experiment Andrew, Keep us updated on your progress and finds. Take some pics too if you will!!

will do, have some up for yas soon

heres some pics of the experiment.

first 2 are about a week week and a half ago.





These 2 I took today. Ironically, I have been trying for weeks to snap a good pic of my Dom Male spec44, takeing pics of the algae I get one.

Really interesting thread, Andrew!