Ok so i wondering switching to a 20 from a 10 gal about 1.5 weeks ago mad ethe brown algea appear. I did have brown algea in the 10 too.
Things i did when converting to the 20 is i added 16 pounds of new gravel, converting all plants, aponogetons (4), anubius and added Wisteria, hornwort and have a dwarf lily finally growing.
I have the brown algea on the gravel as far as i can see and covering the aponogetons and a little on the anubius. I dont see any brown algea on the HW, wisteria or the lily.
My lighting i think is enough as i have 72 watts total over the tank. Also have CO2. Added to the water column Seachem Flourish for the very first time on 10/17/11 so about 5 days ago. I aslo have ferts (osmocote) in the gravel.

From my reading it can be new tank and i wonder on this since it was an upgrade and i added more gravel. ALso that high in silicates and phospates as well. Im not sure on the silicates but the flourish has .01% avail phosphate and the osmocote has 6% avail phosphate. I was using store bought ro water but my last PWC was a 50/50 of the ro and tap water to get some of the minerals back in the tank for fish and plant health. Usually do 50% PWC so i did 5 gal of RO and 5 gal of Tap.
My guess is that the Osmocote or tap water or new gravel is causing this. Why would the aponogetons get the algea on the leaves but all others seem uneffected?
I dont know on silicates as i dont know how to check for that. One othe thing is my town states "water is also treated for corrosion control with a blend polyphosphate products that reduce the amount of lead and copper that leaches from your in house plumbing and the #5 Rawson street well."

Any other ways to control the algea?

I don't think the osmocote is contributing too much, if at all. Anything new, tank, gravel, and whatever else would be my best guess. I had a 20g QT tank that had been setup for over a year with never even a hint of any type of algae and just recently changed to a planted type substrate and added a new light and I have been getting a little myself.

I know it is more a cosmetic nuisance and wont hurt anything. At least its not BBA again whatever. Does new gravel contain silicates? Oh forgott o mention. I added some rocks from outside. I cleaned tham, bleached them, boiled them. Also have a grinder/ wire wheel for work on my muscle car so i took the wire wheel to the rocks to clean off any moss, algea and contaminants on the rocks. All the cleaning was done after the wire wheel. Maybe they contribute to the growth as well. And if you ask what type of rocks, dont know. I dont think they are granite.

You have to do the vinegar test for rocks. Pour vinegar on it, if it smokes dont use them. Unsafe rocks can cause ph issues in your tank. If you didn't already know this.

oh yea forgot to add that. i did do the vinager and it didnt do anything. i let it sit for say 3 minutes on each one and it was pretty uneventful

kill your rights and stop feeding for a few days. then resume with less light duration and less feeding.


my .02

__________________
fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

so i can i do that. I was thinking of the light thing and leaving them off for a while. How many days would you say 2,3, 4. Also i have 2 ?s. I have a shrimp. There is the brown algea so im assuming he will be fine scavaging on the brown algea like he always does. he should be ok with x amount of days no food. ALso i run CO2, should i just let that run in the tank or should i take it out while i do a "Brown out"?
I know fish are cold blooded so dont need regular food like warm blooded creatures and in the wild scavange so access to food isnt always there...but im curious how long they can go with no food?


PS will this be ok for my female swordtail. She is pregnant and should give birth in a week or so.

I have left my fish over a week for a couple of times with no issues. If I knew my light was going to be out for a couple of days, I'd shut down my CO2. Personally, I would clean off what you see, and then reduce the lighting period. Diatoms doesn't need too much light. Most algae can be removed by hand.

Ok so left my lights off today, havent feed since driday night. I did some thinking and remember this in my 10 gallon. It seemed to rear its head when i decided to save money and use tap water fro my PWC. Soon after roughly a week , i noticed the diatoms growing and getting much more as time went on. First on the plants then the gravel. With the 20 gallon it seems like it is the same story. Changed to the 20. Was doing all ro/di water for my PWC and again thought i was missing minerals in the water since i had pure cleaned water so i did a 50/50 of tap and ro/di. 5gal tap, 5 gal ro. Again about 3-4 days later algae. So im gonna do my ro PWC, leave the lights off til say wednesday and start feeding monday morning.
Does that sound like an ok plan JR. Oh also ill leave my CO2 all connected buty just remove it from the tank and reinstall once i turn the lights back on. Ill just let it release the co2 from behind the tank outside...

Also just wondering. Since im just going to do the ro/di water from now on, do i really need to use anything to give back minerals lost. Such as replenish or seachems equilibrium. I havent used it before with the rodi water and i havent noticed ill effects

Since equilibrium and replenish are just salts could i just add aquarium salt, i have that. Also since using rodi i was still thinking on using jungles start right as it gives the fish a stress coat. Thoughts?

Yes, you need a product like the Seachem product. Or, you can use a similar called gh booster. It puts back mahnesium, calcium, potassium, etc, that your fish need. Also, I would get a kh test kit to test and make sure your kh isn't sitting at zero or near. Easy to boost up if need be, but this is what keeps your ph from swinging up and down so much - keeps it stable.

is there a kh test kit you recommend and something to up it if it is at zero. What should kh be at.? is Kh general hardness? Oh one other thing. I was reading iodine promotes algae such as the brown algae and the seachem flourish has it in it. i was thinking of forgoing the flourish if that will help keep the algae away...?

API makes a gh/kh test combined. You may have to order it online. Raising it is done by adding some baking soda. You would need to test a little to find out how much you need to add. I'm not 100% sure if Equillibrium has stuff to boost kh....pretty sure gh boosters don't. Seachem comes to this site...you could send him a pm and ask.

You'll want the level in the 3-4 range to be safe.

that's the value I get using peat moss in the substrate along with a gh of 9 degrees or so. both climb to high values with just plain sand. (at least in my no water change tanks anyway.)


FWIW
Kh is carbonate hardness (a negative ion) and can be increased with small amounts of baking soda which is sodium bicarbonate.

GH is the positive ions like calcium and magnesium. Espom salts (magnesium sulfate) will increase gh.

my .02

__________________
fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden