Algae on plants i think caused from light

[iro11a]

I cant seem to keep any plants at all as soon as i get them home wihtin a couple of days gets a brown algae on just the tops of leaves where the light would hit the leaves its very hard even to rub it off with finger nails just got a couple of indo ferns,2 sail boats which get it really bad they look shocking at the moment,i'm giving them liq ferts what would any of you suggest?i got no suckers just a few cattys i for some reason cant keep bristlenose's or should i add a few more plants and try root ferts? any suggestions would be awesome

[peppermintman]

If you have brow algee then it means that you are feeding to much or water change required. Maybe

[iro11a]

Umm i do a 50% water change per week and i dont feed that much only twice a day and no food is ever left over on the bottom all gets eaten by brothers tank which im taking care of while hes overseas the plants go crazy in there hes got hes temp alot lower because he only got a black ghost knife fish and a angel fish in there but i dunno if temp is the problem i only prob have my light on for max 6 hours per day

[albatrozz]

no temp is not the problem. Just vacuum the brown stuff off the plants or get yourself some otto's and BN's. That should get rid of the brown algae.

[iro11a]

I would vacum if i could but this algae is hard to even rub off using a finger nail and sorta noticed indo ferns looks like they are getting eating away

[aquafrogstuff]

iro11a,

Algae is a pain in #%$^&. It can be the result of a combination on things including nutrient imbalances, too much light and others.

Have a read of these pages for starters;
http://www.aquariumalgae.blogspot.com/
http://www.gwapa.org/articles/algae/#intro

There's an excellent Australian webiste www.aquariumlife.com.au which has a forum topic deticated to algae discussion. Also worth doing some research into these posts.

HTH, Dwayne

[iro11a]

cheers for the link dwanye helped me out a little but im still unsure how it really got there my tank has been set up for years and everytime i get plants it seems to cover it but in my other tanks plants will grow great.I dont want to get a CO2 because of the cost factor,i would try and upload photo to show how bad it is,its sort of eating away at the plants

jono

[aquafrogstuff]

I was 'tearing my hair' out recently with hair algae and found an algecide in the LFS called AglaeFix. I bought the pond version. It worked really well. There's other treatments such as spraying hydrogen peroxide (H202) into the tank in measured dosages. More information on the amouns of H202 can be found on the AquariumLofe website. I tried 100ml of 6% H202 which I purchased from the local chemist for $7. That also worked really well.

From the questions I've asked and information I've read on various forums, there appears to be various treatments including simple things like reducing light durations. I guess you need to try various techniques and see which works best for you for your specific tank conditions as they're not all the same. Techniques can include buying algae eating fish such as ottos, bristlenoses, Saimese Algae Eaters, shrimp etc.

Be keen to see the photos.

Cheers,

Dwayne

[ILLUSN]

algae is an indication of inbalance.

if your getting brown algae thats VERY hard to remove its usually diatoms, these things come up quick with high nitrates.

1st things first stop adding liquid ferts, you have too much nutrient you get algae. how much light do you have? if you have any more than 2.5wpg you NEED CO2 if your running a low light tank you wont have to worry about it.

if you have too little light brown algae seems to flourish (especially in the presence of high nitrate) run a 10 hour photo period for a week, if the plants look sad and the brown algae gets worse up it to 12hrs, if the brown algae still doesnt go away add more light. also keep your nitrates below 10! this is VERY important.

finally what kind of tank do you want? if you want a serious plant tank that needs ferts + trace +CO2 you need HEAPS of plants, and i mean HEAPS, aim for 75%-85% coverage of your tank bottom (yes this leaves much less room for fish). If you want a FISH tank with just a few plants here and there to add some green, get some anubias, javafern, a few clumps of Val and maybe a large amazon sword. Drop your light to about 1.5-2w/gal DONT add ferts to the water column just a root tab every few months to the swords, sit back and enjoy. these plants grow with almost no light, keep up the water changes to heep yor nitrate low and you'll have no algae.