Brown algae?

[Stan Z]

It's a new aquarium not yet a month old. There is this brown stringy stuff that I think came in on a couple plants I put in. I think I read that it eventually will disappear as long as the water parameters are good. Any advice? I keep picking the stuff out when it grows out too much.

 

[Pepere]

Manual removal, puffing substrate with a turkey baster as vaccing away the debris cloud, water changes, time….

[lefty o]

how many hours a day are the lights on, and how much fertilizer if any are you using?

[Lennie]

Hello!

I wanna add a question:

+ how big is your tank? Liters/gallons as well as dimensions. Plus is there any specific stocking you want in there in the future?

Edited August 7 by Lennie

[DansFish]

I'm pretty bad at balancing all the light and nutrients, so I like getting an army of Amano Shrimp, Green Leaf Algae Eating Shrimp, and/or scuds. They eat all that stringy algae and I can sit back and be lazy.

[lefty o]

On 8/7/2024 at 11:29 AM, DansFish said:

I'm pretty bad at balancing all the light and nutrients, so I like getting an army of Amano Shrimp, Green Leaf Algae Eating Shrimp, and/or scuds. They eat all that stringy algae and I can sit back and be lazy.

they certainly help.

[Tony s]

That honestly doesn’t look like brown algae to me. More of a string/hair algae. Brown algae usually is a surface only algae and doesn’t leave trailers in the water column. You’d find it covering the surfaces of everything. It goes away when your silicate levels drop. I wouldn’t expect this to disappear. You may need to consider some maintenance issues. Light down to 8 hours per day and keeping your nitrates at 20 or less. Amano shrimp would be good. Florida flag fish. Or depending upon tank size, Siamese algae eater

[Stan Z]

@lefty o 6-7 hours of light. The substrate is fresh Fluval Stratum. I have only used a couple squirts ofliquid fertilizer. I first noticed the stuff coming from a Sword that I had planted.

[AtomicSunfish]

On 8/7/2024 at 9:01 AM, Stan Z said:

It's a new aquarium not yet a month old. There is this brown stringy stuff that I think came in on a couple plants I put in. I think I read that it eventually will disappear as long as the water parameters are good. Any advice? I keep picking the stuff out when it grows out too much.

 

I’ve noticed this stuff growing in brightly lit tanks with high nitrogen levels. I’ve had success controlling it using bladder snails, which seem to devour it pretty easily.

OTOH, you may find that the algae naturally declines after your tank is fully cycled. You may also find that once your plants become established, they can take up more nitrogen, depriving the algae of fertilizer.

Have you checked your nitrogen levels (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)? It’s possible the algae is taking advantage of high ammonia levels. If that’s the case, I’d do some large water changes (~60%) before introducing snails or any other animals, since the ammonia could be harmful or even lethal for them.

[Stan Z]

@AtomicSunfish thanks. Nitrate and Nitrite were high for a while which spurred it, I'm sure. The stuff was already active by the time I got the nitrogen down. I do regular water changes and suck the stuff out. It's looking better now and I've added fish. All good.

@Tony s thanks. It's looking better. I control the light and nitrogen is zero now. I've added fish and it seems comfy.