Robin Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 I have a 10g tank I set up about a month ago. I have an amazon sword, wisteria, val and some kind of short grass looking plant. I fertilized the tank heavily when I put it together. The plants are doing really well except it has brown algae I think is caused by diatoms. I have not done any water changes, just topped it off. There are no fish. I'd like to do a water change to get the nitrates lower but if I do I feel like I'm just introducing more diatoms and the algae will get worse. The light is a stingray. Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleepy Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 I'd test and see where your nitrates are and make a decision about a water change from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Posted October 26, 2020 Author Share Posted October 26, 2020 5 hours ago, Sleepy said: I'd test and see where your nitrates are and make a decision about a water change from there. The Nitrates are about 80 which I know is high for fish. I could do a water change but is that going to make the brown algae worse? I can wait on the fish if I thought that doing so would make more algae less apt to show up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alesha Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 Just did a little research, and it seems that brown diatom algae is a precursor to green algae. So it would seem that it's part of your tank's cycling. Also, from what I read, the only reason a water change would encourage more brown algae is if your water is high in silicate. In fact, brown algae LOVES nitrate. So by not changing some of the water out, you are just encouraging more food for the diatoms, if that makes sense. I'd do a 25% water change and wait a bit on the fish, until the tank is growing something besides diatom algae. I hope that helps. 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Posted October 26, 2020 Author Share Posted October 26, 2020 15 minutes ago, akconklin said: Just did a little research, and it seems that brown diatom algae is a precursor to green algae. So it would seem that it's part of your tank's cycling. Also, from what I read, the only reason a water change would encourage more brown algae is if your water is high in silicate. In fact, brown algae LOVES nitrate. So by not changing some of the water out, you are just encouraging more food for the diatoms, if that makes sense. I'd do a 25% water change and wait a bit on the fish, until the tank is growing something besides diatom algae. I hope that helps. 🙂 It helps a lot. Thank you. I'll do as you suggest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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