my tank has been running for almost 2 months now, and every week it just gets really brown. the sand, the walls, the rocks. now there are brownish strands attaching to my rocks. is my tank still cycling? in the begining i was changing my water every week because it was looking so dirty, but i havent changed it for 2 weeks now.

What are your Ammonia nitrite and nitrate levels? Did you do the fishless cycle, or cycle with fish? either way you should have your tank cycled by now. Also, what kind of lighting do you have?

Most likely you have enough lighting that the algae is growing. What kind of fish do you have in the tank and what size is it?

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75 Gallon Planted

You are dealing with Brown Diatoms common in the first two-four weeks of a new planted aquarium. Yours has exceeded to four months. You have gone two weeks with out a water change! Not good! To rid Diatoms, start with a water change and wipe aquarium glass with a sponge or paper toweling and clean your filters. Keep this up and Brown Diatoms should disappear
Brown Diatoms do well in low light conditions, Nitrogen sources such as fertilizers and fish food should be reduced. When I had Brown Diatoms I bought Otocinclus affinis, you should have at least two per ten gallons. The best is they act as preventative measure. There are other situation that will cause BD. Lots of luck

I have the same thing going on in my 20 gal. coldwater aquarium. Ive noticed it mostly on my amazon plant.

change your water more frequently!

Good morning rv. I've done just two things to take care of algae problems: Large and frequent water changes up to 50 percent every other week until the algae is under control and I dose Seachem's Flourish Excel according to bottle instructions.

Algae is a primitive plant and the gluteraldehyde in the Excel fertilizer is toxic to it. Your other plants will be fine with it if you stick to the dosing instructions.

BBradbury

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Low Tech Water Building Keeper

Brown Diatoms are not an Algae.....They are just Diatoms.

Hello hank. Diatoms are a photosynthesising form of algae and live in most freshwater tanks. I have followed the water change schedule and the use of gluteraldehyde I mentioned earlier for some time and have never had an algae problem.

BBradbury

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Maybe I missed something We are talking about a saltwater tank right? What kind of flow do you have in this tank? What are your levels? Just trying to get a picture here.

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Good morning trouble. Thought we were talking about freshwater here since this is the freshwater section of the forum. Good observation if we're not. We could be talking "cross purposes" and giving out out some confusing information. Maybe we should start from sctratch.

BBradbury

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Low Tech Water Building Keeper

isnt this the SALTWATER section??? my pH nitrate nitrite and ammonia levels all check out. just getting really brown all the time.

sorry as to the water flow ive got a hanging filter/pump on one side doing about 150gpm and a powerhead on the other side doing 125gpm. this is a 20L tank

i have 2 T5 HO bulbs. its on 6.5 hrs a day. 1 bulb is actinic the other is "superdaylight"

That's a 30" tank you may need to add another power head or a bigger one. For now adjust your power head to blow across the heaviest affected area.

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if i changed the powerhead to one doing about 190gpm would that help? 20L doesnt seem that big to have 3 things

okay just read that reef tanks need about 10x turnover so that would be almost 200gph. guess i'll get the bigger one

A saltwater tank needs a lot of flow even 10x is on the low side. How much live rock is in this tank?

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i started with maybe 6-7lbs live rock 5lbs base rock. but all the rocks have something growing on them now so i might be around 12ish?

You might want to add some more cured live rock aswell. That will be you best filtration.

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