# Weird Brownish Algae type stuff, stuck to glass and filters



## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

alright, i went away for 5 days. come back and my tank has all this brownish stuff on the side of it. it rubs off with a magnetic scrubber but its all over my filters and everything.

what is it?
is it bad? 
how do i get rid of it?


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## skubasteve! (Feb 14, 2007)

Looks like some kind of film algae, I had it on my 75g when I was running lots of light on it. It comes off easily, and I dont think its too serious. How much light do you have on your tank? How long do you leave your lights on everyday? Maybe wipe off as much as you can and cut back an hour or two on your light usage.


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## SAFETYpin (Feb 1, 2004)

It appears to be brown algae also know as diatoms, not really algae at all but a bacteria. There pretty common in tanks with excess nutrients and light. My best guess is wipe off as much as you can, change some water, and reduce the light to the tank. Natural sunlight really sets this stuff off, pull the shades on a window if direct sunlight hits the tank.


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## CorGravey (Feb 13, 2007)

Ammonia causes this brown algae was my understanding of it. My tank was covered in it while cycling and now i dont see it anymore.


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## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

water perams are fine. i know what its from

i went away for 3 or 4 days. my dad thought the tank was on a timer. ( all my others are ) so the light stayed on 24 hours a day for 3 days. plus my filters were a tad dirty.

cleaned off the algae, water change and vacuum, and cleaned the filter.

lights off for a while


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## black_piranha (Jan 12, 2006)

i got this a long way back when i didnt keep up with my water changes, but my param was fine. just scrub it off and do a 50% water change. u should be fine.


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## Sparky73 (Dec 16, 2005)

I also have this problem. I have no direct sunlight. The window closest to my tank has 5% Window tint and Shades are shut 24/7 (I work 3rd Shift). I only leave my tank lights on for a couple hours a day.. off and on when I want to watch my fish or friends come over. It mostly grows on the back of the tank.. where I can't algae scrub with my magnetic, and I also have a background on there.. so that wouldn't work. It's REALLY hard to clean since I have many plants and such which block my way. Any other ways to get rid of it? Any type of "Bottom Feeder" or Snail I could get that would help?

About the ammonia.. my stats are as follows:
Ammonia - 0 PPM
Nitrite - 0 PPM
Nitrate - 10-20 PPM
PH - 7.6


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## skubasteve! (Feb 14, 2007)

You can try some Otocinclus they are very cheap, and stay small. However they will probably become a meal sooner or later if Its a P tank.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

just try to scrub it off the glass then do water changes a bit each day of so and if htat doesnt get rid of it thy chems


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