The Puffer Forum

I also have a ton of Brown algae all over my decor. I thought this was normal. I use 2 Whisper 60 HOB and an Eheim 2227 (also have another Eheim 2227 on order to add to my tank). Should I take the carbon out of my Whisper to get rid of the algae problem. Is that all it will take? Also my lights are on from 6:30am-8:30pm daily. I thought that may have something to do with it. I usually take a few pieces of decor out and clean them in tank water. I do this every week with a water change. My water test are Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5-10, PH 8.2-8.4. It's a 120 Gallon 6 foot tank with only 2 GSP's. My tank has be up and running for about 3 months.

Nah, apparently the Brown Algae is simply a result of a new brackish/saltwater tank. Silicates leech from different things in the tank, which causes a brown algae growth (supposedly). Apparently if you give it a while, it will (hopefully) go away after all the silicates are consumed. If not, you might want to check your water or different decor to see if it's leeching... unfortunately, I'm not exactly sure how to check that.

Most of decor is dead coral or sea shells. I have about 6 pieces of plastic coral. And about 7 silk plants. I guess I will wait it out. Thanks for the reply.

I think reducing the length of lighting time does help - I understood that lighting for more than 8 - 10 hrs accelerates the algal growth.

Thanks I'll try that. It seems the more I clean it off the faster it comes back. lol.

Cleaning the algae off the walls just makes the spores float around more... ^_^

Not sure if you're doing it, but try cleaning off the walls and immediately doing a water change, or use a Python to siphon the water around the area that you're cleaning to remove most of that algae.

When I have brown algae in my 28g (which so far has only been on the rocks and fake plants), I just removed them and cleaned it all off under my tap water (chalk full of chlorine). You might want to consider cleaning some of your decor off, as there may be some hidden brown algae that's spreading from it.

In both of my newish FW tanks I have started to see brown algae. I do add aquarium salt at this time. I have not converted to brackish yet as the puffers are still young.

I already threw away a fake white coral I had from the algae because the coral looked so pourous I did not want to fool with it. I'm not looking forward to cleaning everything in the tank from this crud growing .