algae all over

alright so i been watchin my bristle nose pleco grow out tank. i divided it and now the pleco side is really pretty. the other side only has 2 angels in it. the angel side is covered in brown algae..... not sure what causes this.. so i looked it up. says poor lighting.... umm i have a T5 light for plant growth..... i also found some blue green algae in part of my tank.. this algae is found in high light araes in the tank... so what gives.. do i have poor light or high light....

how do i get rid of it and keep it away.

after i get done typing this out im going to do a water change and clean all the glass. i do a 50% water change every 3 days. since i have alot of juvenile pleco in this tank plus 2 breeding pairs of angels in the tank.

i also added 6 plants.. i got some java fern and some anubis plants. to replace the plastic ones.

Down2Earth wrote:

alright so i been watchin my bristle nose pleco grow out tank. i divided it and now the pleco side is really pretty. the other side only has 2 angels in it. the angel side is covered in brown algae..... not sure what causes this.. so i looked it up. says poor lighting.... umm i have a T5 light for plant growth..... i also found some blue green algae in part of my tank.. this algae is found in high light araes in the tank... so what gives.. do i have poor light or high light....

how do i get rid of it and keep it away.

after i get done typing this out im going to do a water change and clean all the glass. i do a 50% water change every 3 days. since i have alot of juvenile pleco in this tank plus 2 breeding pairs of angels in the tank.

i also added 6 plants.. i got some java fern and some anubis plants. to replace the plastic ones.

Brown algae are usually caused by an excess of silicates (silicic acid, SiO₂)and nitrates in the water. To stop it coming back first of all look at how much you are feeding and try to reduce that and also if you have a canister filter (external power) put some silicate absorption medium in it. JBL (SilicatEx) makes some good stuff that will help with brown Algae. It not only removes the silicates but also phosphates to get rid of the algae.
I have used it myself and found it pretty good. In the meantime keep up your water changes and algae removal. Then you should be fine.
Marty

marty14 wrote:

Down2Earth wrote:

alright so i been watchin my bristle nose pleco grow out tank. i divided it and now the pleco side is really pretty. the other side only has 2 angels in it. the angel side is covered in brown algae..... not sure what causes this.. so i looked it up. says poor lighting.... umm i have a T5 light for plant growth..... i also found some blue green algae in part of my tank.. this algae is found in high light araes in the tank... so what gives.. do i have poor light or high light....

how do i get rid of it and keep it away.

after i get done typing this out im going to do a water change and clean all the glass. i do a 50% water change every 3 days. since i have alot of juvenile pleco in this tank plus 2 breeding pairs of angels in the tank.

i also added 6 plants.. i got some java fern and some anubis plants. to replace the plastic ones.

Brown algae are usually caused by an excess of silicates (silicic acid, SiO₂)and nitrates in the water. To stop it coming back first of all look at how much you are feeding and try to reduce that and also if you have a canister filter (external power) put some silicate absorption medium in it. JBL (SilicatEx) makes some good stuff that will help with brown Algae. It not only removes the silicates but also phosphates to get rid of the algae.
I have used it myself and found it pretty good. In the meantime keep up your water changes and algae removal. Then you should be fine.
Marty

what he said!