# Need a little help/advice



## Domelotta (Apr 25, 2007)

Ok, so I'm not sure what caused this...could have been multiple things. My water params are:

Ammonia = 0 ppm
Nitrite = .25 ppm
Nitrate = 0 ppm
Ph. = 7.0

I have 2.32 wpg of light on my tank for 11-12 hours a day and lots of plants.
I dose Excel daily and Comprehensive weekly, also have root tabs. I do 1-2 weekly 25% water changes. It all depends on how much I feed that week and my readings.

I don't know how bad the .25 nitrite level is, but it has been there for a few days now. I did daily 25% water changes and it still hasn't lowered (past two days).

So my guess is one or two of the following. I recently had dying java ferns that I ordered off eBay and I took them out (increased nitrite). I also switched 2/4 of the filter packs on my HOB because the carbon was used up I believe (water wouldn't get clear no matter how hard I tried). I had perfect params then (0,0,0,7.2). The brown algae appeared around this time. (killed too much beneficial bacteria, so brown algae is doing part of the work) Oh and I also previously dosed comprehensive twice a week. Too Much?

Is it perhaps a mini-cycle? I thought brown algae were diatoms and they helped with the cycling of tanks and only appeared in new tanks...green in established tanks. These are just my assumptions...please correct me if I'm wrong. I just don't know what to do now. I hate the sight of the algae, but I think it has a purpose so I'm not going to clean it off yet. Also I'm anal about my params...never had nitrite before so this is a first.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks


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## the keeper (Jan 16, 2010)

the nitrite can be controled adding some aquarium salt, their are some things you can use for the algae, but im not to sure because i only had that problem with one of my tanks, but i prefer to clean my filter tubes, deco, etc, myself rather than adding more stuff to my tank. but like i said before add a little salt, desolve it first in a cup of aquarium water so you dont burn your fish, then your nitrite should godown to 0, thats what i use and my nitrite never is above 0.


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## Domelotta (Apr 25, 2007)

Ok I'm adding a teaspoon of salt. I was just hesitant because of my plants. So the brown algae won't go away on it's own?


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## the keeper (Jan 16, 2010)

Domelotta said:


> Ok I'm adding a teaspoon of salt. I was just hesitant because of my plants. So the brown algae won't go away on it's own?


unfortunately not, maybe somebody else knows the stuff to get reid of the ba. goodluck.


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## frankie09c (Aug 21, 2009)

i also have that algae problem, did a 60% water change and washed everything in the tank.

after a few months it always comes back.

excessive light really speeds up the growth of the algae.


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## Murphy18 (Oct 17, 2008)

Is this a pretty recent setup?, Brown Algae (Diatoms), is usually the first to appear after a newly cycled tank, if the tank is only quite new it should deteriorate as the tank establisehs biologically and becomes healthier. Diatoms can also be caused by excess silicates (especialy if you have sand) and high phosphate levels. The carbon in your filter is probably another cause for your likely high phosphate levels, its not really necessary and is only really used when removing any recently used meds or chemicals.

Buy a liquid phosphate tester, check levels, you ideally want them no higher than 0.05ppm, i would be concerned if they were more like 2-3. Best way to reduce phospates is to never let them get high in the first place. Only thing i can suggest is larger frequent water changes, no direct sunlight hitting the tank, regular cleaning of the glass and/or other infected areas and feed sparingly. Also i would buy some phos-guard to put in your filter. There isn't a certain way to remove diatoms permanently but i found doing the above combined worked for me eventually, i still get diatoms now and again in patches on the sand but i just vacuum it up, no where near a bad as it used to be though. I also believe a lighter color substrate can cause the spreading of diatoms.

(Thanks to Dippy for some of this information and advice







)


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## Domelotta (Apr 25, 2007)

Yea funny thing is I have silica sand substrate. The tank itself has been established for about 2 1/2 years. Just never had brown algae, only green. Then again this is my first planted tank so the lighting was much different. I'll check out the phosphate levels and do some water changes in the next few days. Hopefully it's start ridding me of this. It's just very unsightly. Also I just put the phos-guard in my filter?


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## Murphy18 (Oct 17, 2008)

Yeah its just like a media which goes into the filter, the directions tell you how much to use and how much water it will treat etc.. you may need to place it in a filter bag though because its like really small beads.


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## SpecialEffect (Aug 7, 2009)

Murphy18 said:


> Yeah its just like a media which goes into the filter, the directions tell you how much to use and how much water it will treat etc.. you may need to place it in a filter bag though because its like really small beads.


Yes, he'll have to buy a bag... if anything just buy "THE BAG" (by seachem, or is it called BAG lol) and put phos-guard in it... im not to sure, but i think you can buy the bag with phos-guard already in it... (same as purigene yeah know) if not, just buy bag and phosguard.

Uhm, also another question.... your silica sand, is it none-colored or is it color treated?


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## Domelotta (Apr 25, 2007)

Ok so "The Bag"? or just get a seachem bag and fill it with the phos-guard. Sounds simple enough. I just cleaned the diatoms this morning, but them seem to be coming back already (12 hours ago). Just a thought...could it maybe the seachem flourish ferts I put in the substrate? I put three tabs in. One under the amazon sword, another next to some dwarf sag., and last one next to a crypt, all spaced out at least 7 inches from one another. The silica sand in these three spots is actually more colorful/browner than the rest of the sand. I read there is .17% phosphate in each tab...not sure if that would be significant enough to cause this.

Oh and the silica is non-colored...or just white I guess. I've had it for years and it never caused a problem until now.


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## SpecialEffect (Aug 7, 2009)

I guess since you say you had it for years the color cant be an issue








On my 48 gallon i have black silica sand and it has never ever turned black (yeah i know its black, but you would notice a color difference lolol) however, on my 10 gallon little aquarium i used the none-colored silica sand and it has turned brown over time without any ferts or plants or anything... just a cray fish and 3 shrimps... Im nowt changing that sand to a colored silica sand called buff... looks sorta saharan dessert... and see how that is... My dad said it should be better because the colored silica sand is color treated (duh) and could help out... <=- god knows if hes right all he knows is construction - not aquariums lol.

And i did a little research sorta (was just looking at prices) you can buy phos-guard already in a bag... (100l bag, basically the original)... here in quebec its 11$.

Now, it depends how much fertilizing are you doing... are you doing iron, excel, flourish + tabs... then could be, could depend on your lighting also. Best way to find out is a test kit


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## Domelotta (Apr 25, 2007)

SpecialEffect said:


> I guess since you say you had it for years the color cant be an issue
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I have 3 tabs, daily flourish excel, weekly flourish comprehensive, and 2 weekly water changes on average about 25% each. Lighting is 2.32 Watts per gallon. I'm not dosing too much I don't think. But then again I haven't been using plants that long. Prolly about a month.


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## Domelotta (Apr 25, 2007)

Haven't done anything except a 25% water change yesterday and added some salt, dosed comprehensive & excel
Nitrite = 1.0 ppm

Not really sure what to do.


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## Domelotta (Apr 25, 2007)

Oh boy. Just retested and it's 2.5 ppm.
My fish are acting fine completely normal, but I'm scared because I know nitrite is supposed to kill.


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

The salt should take care of the nitrite poisoning. This sounds like a mini-cycle because of the media change. I would just keep up with the water changes and wait it out. Do you really have the number of plants it takes to have zero nitrates?


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## Domelotta (Apr 25, 2007)

Grosse Gurke said:


> The salt should take care of the nitrite poisoning. This sounds like a mini-cycle because of the media change. I would just keep up with the water changes and wait it out. Do you really have the number of plants it takes to have zero nitrates?


I'm not sure about the plants. I know it's a lot...but I didn't think it would eliminate all the nitrates. So the salt prevents the fish from being poisoned? How often should I dose it? I'm going to continue daily 25% water changes unless that's not recommended.
Plant list:
1x (big water sprite)-->grows like crazy
6x dwarf sag sprouts-->growing and spreading
1x large java fern
lots of java moss all over the tank
1x large amazon sword-->growth is impressive
1x crypt wendtii-->beginning growth
2x anubias bartereri
1x anubias lanceolota
1x brazilian sword (sold as underwater sword)

That's all I can name off the top of my head. I mean I was surprised with zero nitrates also


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

My fear...is that the zero nitrates are the result of your tank not being fully cycled...not from the plants consuming them.

Anyways...yes....just a small amount of salt helps with nitrites. Keep up with the water changes and it should work itself out.


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