Whoa! Brown Hair Algae Out of Control!

[whitecheese4356]

Hi guys,

I have a newly started tank. It's about 4 weeks old now. Ammonia, nitrites are 0.
I use pressurized Co2. Lights are two 24w t5ho 6500k, 17 gal

Around the second week I got a massive outbreak.
At this time, I had the lights on 10 hours a day and was EI dosing.
Attached is a pic of what it looked like around the second week.
I tested nitrates and it was ~80ppm, I think partially because I was dosing too much dry ferts.

I've cut the light period back to 6 hours and no longer dosing ferts.
I now have about 10ppm of nitrates but the algae does not seem to be going away. I've also been changing about 40% every other day.

Is there any recommendation on what else I can do? or just wait it out and keep changing water every other day.

Thanks

edit: I'll post a pic when I get home.

[whitecheese4356]

http://s1195.photobucket.com/albums/...5.jpg&newest=1

I have some amano shrimps in there as well.

[KrazyFish]

Too much light i bet.

[whitecheese4356]

6 hours still too much?
4 hours maybe?

Plants seem to still be doing well.

[Jeffww]

Seems like filamentous diatoms. They are a colonial species that propogates rapidly. One way to see if it's diatoms is by rubbing a bit between your fingers. If it turns to a mush or powder it's diatoms.

Just vacuum what you can out and wait it out. It'll be gone in a month. This is a high light loving species too but most of all time is of the essence.

edit: saw the pic. 1000000% sure that's filamentous diatoms. Vacuum what you can out and then just wait. It'll be gone soon. Nothing to worry about. It's not because of too much light either. It's too much silicates.

Are you using fluval stratum? It seems to have this problem when disturbed a lot.

[whitecheese4356]

Yea it basically turns to mush when I rub it between my fingers. Not really slimy.
I vacuum what I can and toothbrush.

Using ADA new amazonia. I may have disturbed the substrate when I toothbrush or vacuum.
uprooted plants a couple times. :X

Well thanks for the reply.

[whitecheese4356]

hey i was just thinking, but do shrimps eat filamentous diatoms?
i have rcs and amano's. don't know if I need to supplement some blanched veggies.

[Jeffww]

To my knowledge they don't. Otos don't touch it either.

[whitecheese4356]

Update: I recently found a thread on this forum about rhizoclonium.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/al...do-i-do-2.html

I tried the black out, water change everyday while dosing excel for three days.

Growth of the algae diminished and turned from brown, to pale green!
I'm also continuing to dose excel regularly for maybe a couple more weeks just to get it good.

Thought I share my experience if someone else encounters this algae.

[steak]

I had similar problems with a new tank I set up. It turned out that I was dosing too much potassium.

[whitecheese4356]

how'd you get rid of it?

so what kind of algae is it?
rhizo?

now that i think back, I was using dry ferts and may have overdosed as well?

[steak]

All I did was stop dosing the potassium (the only fert I dosed) and waited it out. What everyone is saying seems to make sense, and I remember reading that it might have been diatoms. I do not know for sure which it was. It was brown, grew on moss, rocks, and plants, and formed snott-like tufts. Once I stopped with the potassium it cleared up very fast, and that is what I like to think caused the outbreak. Whatever the fert, any excess is usually capitalized upon by algae.

[steak]

I'll try and get a pic up after the weekend. I am away from my computer at the moment.

[whitecheese4356]

thanks!

[steak]