2 Tanks-1 With Problem

[spottedpony]

Hi- I have 2 estab. tanks. I check the water weekly and do water changes. One tank is for my Orandas and the other I have freshwater angelfish. I have changed the location of the tanks and that does not help.(switching places)My question is why does my heated 78 deg. tank keep getting brown algae and the cold tank not. Is there some thing I can do to keep from getting it. Thanks

[koko]

Well warm water tanks get brown algae alot faster than cold water ones. What kind of lighting do you have on that tank? Is there plants in there? Whats the filter like?

[CountryLovah]

UGh I hate brown algea it's soo nasty!!! I get it a lot in my betta tanks. Like koko said, it was happening to me in the warmer water tanks.. I used to keep the light on for the bettas about 6 hours each day..I decided to keep the off for the most part (except for when I feed them) and ever since that the algea has remained under control. I've seen other people with algea that keeps coming back, and I consider myself lucky that simply switching off the lights worked for me!

[spottedpony]

KoKo-The tank is a 60 gal. w/ heater (78-80), about 12 hrs. light, light is 25w tropic sun 5500k daylight bulb-1 bulb the length of tank, 2 whisper 60 filters w/ char. , and I took out the live plants because they were covered in the alg. I have air bubbles pump and decor rocks for hidding, gravel, and plastic plants. Do I need to fed the angles every day???? Any suggestions---Thanks Spottedpony

[koko]

Thats one problem "25w" light is to low for that tank. Brown algae will grow in low light, I would say get another light for it, or see if you can get some sunlight. Also more water changes will help too, the brown algae likes to grow off of nitrates. So when you had the plants in there they were trying to consume the nitrates but it was to much for them and thats why it started to grow on them

Angel fish should be feed once a day, delicate fish.

How much gravel in the tank?

[spottedpony]

KoKo- I have about 35-40 lbs. gravel-it covers the bottom and about 1/2 above the black frame if you look from outside front. What watt bulb or what type should I try. Thanks spottedpony

[koko]

Thats alot of gravel . I would only have about a 1/2" to a 1" of gravel in there, do you gravel syphone to keep waste down?

If your not going to keep live plants I would do 2-3 watts per gal. If your going to have live plants I would go the higher end and aim at 4 watts per gal. This will not only brighten the tank up but also help keep the brown gunk down

Also water changes of 40% once a week Also there is a product call Phosorbe that will help, you can just stick it in the filter

[spottedpony]

KoKo- Thank you so much for the suggestions- I will take out some of the gravel, maybe even do new gravel since the old have brown junk in it. Yes I do syphone the gravel with each weekly water change. I have be using Kent Marine "Phosphate Sponge" in my filters. I have changed this 2x now. Is this the same type as the phosorbe??? So foe a 60 gal tank you think I need about 120 watts- I'm not sure, I have only seen 25 watt bulbs but then they have different K daylight amount on them???

[lynda441]

I just wanted to add my basic two cents as well. Algae is the most basic plant life and the first to grow in a new water environment. Once it gets sufficiently established, it will slow its growth so that other plant life can then be established. If you are constantly removing all traces of the algae, the algae, by its very nature, will do everything possible to re-establish itself. This is just what it's programmed to do. But, if you leave some undisturbed algae when you clean, say on a decoration or rock, that algael plant balance isn't disrupted and it doesn't attempt to re-grow more algae. I read this some years ago, so when I started getting brown algae, I decided to follow this idea and left a little in my tank. There are two tubes that I never clean off the algae and it's absolutely true! My rampant algae growth has all but stopped. I never have to clean for algae anymore.

[Guest Ajno]

I know how you feel. I have had the same problem. I use seachem phosguard in all my filters and upped the lighting to over 1 watt per gallon. The brown is starting to fade and the green is starting to grow. There are test kits available to check for phosphates that may be helpful. But if I were in your shoes I'd change the lighting first and go from there.