# Brown algea on my fake plants



## timmy (Mar 29, 2004)

It is ony on my fakeplants. What can i clean it with?


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## rchan11 (May 6, 2004)

I take mine out and use a toothbrush to clean.


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## Pyri (May 26, 2005)

I wiped it out with thumb in tank. It get loose very easy, like dust. And after that I did waterchange so I get rid of it.

*EDIT:* Nowadays I dont have anymore brown or any algea problem at all but not because waterchanges but because I dimmed lights and now there is no any algae


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## timmy (Mar 29, 2004)

Pyri said:


> I wipe it out with thumb in tank. It get loose very easy, like dust. And after that I syphon the tank


I tried all the above and nothing. The plants are very tall 3ft and very thick.


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## Pyri (May 26, 2005)

timmy said:


> I wipe it out with thumb in tank. It get loose very easy, like dust. And after that I syphon the tank


I tried all the above and nothing. The plants are very tall 3ft and very thick.
[/quote]

Check my edited post. But dimming is not solution if you have live plants


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## rchan11 (May 6, 2004)

Use RO/DI


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## PaNo617 (Jan 31, 2005)

rchan11 said:


> Use RO/DI


What's RO/DI?

I've dimmed my lights waay down, and i only get very little now...


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## Pyri (May 26, 2005)

Dimmed tank looks also much better. It's not lighting whole damn room and looks more natural


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## NTcaribe (Apr 8, 2004)

get some algae eating loaches or plecos...they love the stuff


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## timmy (Mar 29, 2004)

My lights are already dimmed.


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## Pyri (May 26, 2005)

timmy said:


> My lights are already dimmed.


So you have to dim more.


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## lament configuration (Jun 22, 2003)

isnt brown algae due to phosphates? so RO/DI would definitely clear that problem up.


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## timmy (Mar 29, 2004)

I dont know, i am goign to take them out this weekend.


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## detroitpiranha (Feb 7, 2006)

I learned this one just by chance....I was feeding the P's some goldfish and a couple managed to live for longer than a day and I watched them completely clean all of my plastic plants of algae! It was great! Soon as the plants were clean the P's made short work of them.


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## piranha_guy_dan (Oct 4, 2004)

pleco?? ive also noticed when i add salt to my tanks that if it goes on the leaves it eventually kills the algae or else its a coinsidence........... but i dont suggest adding that much salt to your tank to kill the algae.


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

i usually wash my decorations in the dishwasher, along with any other things i can fit in there... impellers on filters etc... and always double rinse them when you take them out


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## harrykaa (Jan 10, 2005)

timmy said:


> I dont know, i am goign to take them out this weekend.


Timmy,

Is your algae light brown, unicellular coating (comes off like dust just as Pyri said)?
If it is, the algae are Diatoms (Bacillariophyta). They need silicates (SiO4) to grow. Usually they are abundant in new or quite new tanks (a year or less)? Do you have a new tank.

And yes dimming helps (or a two day blackout). You can also go on cleaning, eventually it will disappear.

Regards,


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## ben2957 (Sep 17, 2005)

you should take your plants out and bleach them in a tub or bucket. mix up about a half of a cup of bleach with five gallons of hot water and let it soak for about 30min to 1 hour depending on how dirty it is. after soaking remove all of the bleach water and rinse the plants well then mix up a container with water and plenty of declonator let it soak for about 30min and rinse off in clean water if you can still smell bleach after soaking change the water and soak again until there is no bleach smell. almost all of the lfs use this method for cleaning their plants and decor. hope this helped you it works great for me.


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## timmy (Mar 29, 2004)

ben2957 said:


> you should take your plants out and bleach them in a tub or bucket. mix up about a half of a cup of bleach with five gallons of hot water and let it soak for about 30min to 1 hour depending on how dirty it is. after soaking remove all of the bleach water and rinse the plants well then mix up a container with water and plenty of declonator let it soak for about 30min and rinse off in clean water if you can still smell bleach after soaking change the water and soak again until there is no bleach smell. almost all of the lfs use this method for cleaning their plants and decor. hope this helped you it works great for me.


Thank you , i will try this!


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