Algae/Diatom Growth

[martianarts]

What do you use to get rid of that brown/orange algae that gorws EVERYWHERE in your tank?
I heard you could use Maracyn, but I'm really cautious about putting chemicals in my tank, even stuff like Maracyn.
Input would be helpful.

 

[cnlight]

I have never heard of using Marcyn for getting rid of algae. Maracyn is a fish med. Brown algae is caused by phosphates, which can come from tap water or the start of a new tank will cause brown algae. If you are just starting out your tank, then the brown algae will start to turn to green algae, and thats what you want.

 

[cprdnick]

I can't stand putting chemicals in my tank. It took a case of unbeatable cyanobacteria to make me use Maracyn. I will recommend it to anyone with a cyano problem and that only. As long as they have tried the other proper remedies.
Try some Mexican Turbos. Not the black turbos. Where is the algae?

 

[martianarts]

Well, the tank has been up and running for about 6 months, and the algae is on the sand, on the glass, on the LR, just everywhere.
And about the Maracyn, that's what I thought too, which was why I asked.
But in the beginning, there was tons of it, and it never really turned green. It did disappear after a while, and the LR looked really healthy. But now everything is turning brown again.

 

[torrancejones]

Im kinda new to aquariums, but could this brown algae be the result of a large water change? Certainly something must have changed in the system, MartianArts - has anything changed in your tank in the past 2 or 3 weeks?
--Tor

 

[martianarts]

We've been using distilled H2O for top offs.
We grabbed some snails from the LFS and they're doing their job. Unfortunately their shells are so heavy we have to rescue them from the bottom of the tank a lot, since they can't flip themselves over.
And normally snails wouldn't be a big deal, but they were kinda fun to watch for a couple minutes. They were even kinda cute.
We giggled a little as we watched one leave a clean white trail in the algae covered sand.

 

[wrassecal]

Sound like what you are seeing is dead diatom casings. You might check for phosphates. Have you changed anything in your tank lately? new lighting? added lr or sand? anything?