Hello, I think your best bet is to make enough time or do it in phases of water changes. Rub the brown algae off each plant. During this time you may want to lower your photo period to 6 hours. Do a real good tank, filter, gravel, filter hose cleaning. I believe once you rid all or most the algae and your plants start to grow at there peak. The algae won't come back. This process can take a month maybe less, depending in the amount of effort you can put into it. Good luck enjoy the ride

 

Or try PhosGuard.

 

@KZB I went to work cleaning as best I could yesterday. Algae off the glass, scrubbed some rocks and driftwood, and the hardest part: I very carefully rubbed algae off the leaves, though it was much harder on the bacopa caroliniana and hairgrass (I couldn't get it all). I added some new echinodorus and anubias plants to try and help battle the algae. I'd love to plant a carpet plant but I never have luck; tried monte carlo, glosso, dwarf sag, hairgrass, etc.

@OVT I've got a phosphate test in my online shopping cart, so I can first see if phosphates are high enough to be triggering the algae. If the phosphates are higher than preferable, I'll definitely check out PhosGuard!
@DaveKS The Stress Coat is my dechlorinator and helps increaes the slime coat of the fish. The Nite-Out II is supposed to stabilize and maintain nitrification in the tank and reduce ammonia. I don't really have a problem with nitrites or ammonia, but I don't know if that's Nite-Out II working or if there's no issue to start with. I could stop dosing with it, though, and find out.

 

What’s point of stress coat and nite out weekly? Neither of those should be needed in healthy cycled aquarium.

Also what filtration system do other 2 tanks use?

 

Mods, please delete this post, there's been an update.

 

Silicate test: My 5 gallon with the algae problems registered as 3.75-5 mg. My other two nano tanks (2.5g and 3.7g) that aren't having big algae issues registered as 2-2.5 mg.

Phosphate test: The 5 gallon registered as 0.25 ppm, which according to other threads, isn't problematic. Tested my tap water and it's 0.50 ppm.

Ideas: I've been dosing fertilizer (NA Thrive) in the water column weekly, but I'm going to start using root tabs as well. With luck that'll give the rooted plants some more nutrients.

I'm also looking into maybe replacing my Thrive with APT Complete.

I'm using ADA aquasoil but it's been in for four months. Occasionally as I vacuum the top soil out, I add more in. Would this be enough, or am I supposed to remove all the aquasoil and replace it?

After trying to clean out as much of the brown algae as I can, it has exploded again. There's also now a lot of bubbles all over the tank gravel and plants.

 

I forgot to ask how long has your tank been set up brown algae is typically related to new tanks. Another thing I would reccomend is to shorten your photoperiod to 6 hours for the time being. While continuing very thorough cleaning routine, during water changes. Goodluck and enjoy the ride.

 

@KZB I'm so sick of this stuff constantly coming back after I clean it off. I'm going to use the one-two punch.

 

It's coming back because of an underlying problem. The one-two punch treats the symptom not the cause

 

@jcoulter But I haven't figured out the cause and it's getting so bad, plants are starting to die. It doesn't seem to be the silicates, phosphates, lights, tank gets algaecide daily, ferts once a week, parameters are reading fine (except nitrates get high when this stuff starts to kill the plants), no ammonia. The brown algae just comes back and gets so bad, it starts creating tiny bubbles everywhere, and then blocks the photosynthesis off the leaves.

 

I hear you, it can be frustrating. I am also dealing with a (albeit smaller) brown algae problem.

The one-two punch could buy you some time to find the cause and deal with it, but surely it is stressful on the fish. Be careful!

 

The one-two punch could buy you some time to find the cause and deal with it, but surely it is stressful on the fish. Be careful!

That's honestly what I'm hoping for; that I can give the plants some time to hopefully recuperate while I try to figure out what the cause is of the algae. My fish is always stressed, too. I just wish I could figure out what's wrong with this particular tank, while my even smaller tanks seem to do better. I'd be so tempted to dismantle it and start over but then my fish would have nowhere to live while the new tank cycles.

 

Back with an update! I did the one-two punch and within a day or two, a lot of the brown algae died and fell off. Then some dark green algae began to spread on the petite anubias, and a bit on the glass. I set up a shelf with a back and side and moved the aquarium there, so that there is no longer any possibility of sunlight hitting it. Then I cleaned it down pretty good and reduced the photo period by 2 hours. It's been a few days and I haven't seen the algae return yet.

It's been 11 days since then and sadly the betta is still stressed by showing clamped fins. I wish I could determine what is stressing him out.

 

I would stop doing everything "extra" that I could. No ferts, no changing substrate, keep a low photoperiod (5 hours is considered plenty to keep plants happy), etc. Feed sparingly, and if the betta is your only inhabitant, do a 10-25% water change with light gravel vac (and manual algae removal where possible) once per week with dechlorinated water (measure the dechlorinator too, just to hit all the bases). I'd take the carbon out, as well. After a month, assess everything and slowly try to add one thing at a time back in. The only things I didn't see you mention was if your circulation was decent throughout the tank, and if you had any ammonia or nitrites... In any case, good luck!

 

Hey there, got some questions!

Water Changes:
Normally once a week on this tank I do a 50% water change. Is this too much?

Betta Food:
I feed the bettas once a day, either every day or every other day, but I feed them the size of their eye and they're pretty good about getting it all. I try to take no chances that they'll overeat.

Substrate:
Sometimes I add in substrate if I've vacuumed up some and it's left a noticeable dip.

Lights:
Photoperiod got changed to 6 hours, should I change it down to 5?

Extras:
What I dose with each weekly water change is:
Stress Coat - dechlorinator
Excel - algaecide (I apply this every day)
GH+ Mineralizer - My GH is too low otherwise

Once a week (not with a water change) I dose my fertilizer, Thrive. If I don't, the leaves start getting holes in them.

Circulation:
I have a pre-filter sponge on my outtake but I also have an airstone to keep the surface moving. Ammonia and nitrites are always at 0. If nitrates are above 10, it tends to mean algae/dying plants so I look for dying matter and remove it.

Other:
Carbon's already been out for a while.

 

Hey there, got some questions!

Water Changes:
Normally once a week on this tank I do a 50% water change. Is this too much?
I don't know if it's "too much," but I can't imagine that it is necessary -- you have a lovely, light load! I generally change a little over 1 gallon from my 5 gallon betta tank, and I occasionally skip a week.

Betta Food:
I feed the bettas once a day, either every day or every other day, but I feed them the size of their eye and they're pretty good about getting it all. I try to take no chances that they'll overeat.
It sounds like you have this dialed in pretty well. After reading a bit, I did start feeding my betta more -- I had originally been told 2-3 pellets/day! He easily eats twice that! I'm still working up to giving my fish a better diet in general.

Substrate:
Sometimes I add in substrate if I've vacuumed up some and it's left a noticeable dip.
I wonder if this might be where you're having some issues? I haven't used the ADA Aquasoil, so I don't have personal experience. I did read a little about it on this & another forum though, and it seems that most people try not to disturb the soil too much. I have no idea what your process is when you gravel vac, but when I do it in my dirted/sand capped tank, I wave my vac around to stir up debris, then suck that up, barely allowing the vac to touch the sand. I also keep the hose partially kinked so I can slow the flow & stop it at a moments notice, in case I start sucking up anything I don't want to! As for adding substrate - with any sort of activated substrate, I would want to research if it possibly leaches something into the water when it's new. It might be causing nutrient spikes and throwing off your tank chemistry -- or tossing off a little ammonia or something and upsetting your Betta?

Lights:
Photoperiod got changed to 6 hours, should I change it down to 5?
6 is probably close enough -- I'd leave it there for a month and then reassess.

Extras:
What I dose with each weekly water change is:
Stress Coat - dechlorinator
Excel - algaecide (I apply this every day)
GH+ Mineralizer - My GH is too low otherwise
In the interests of messing with the tank as little as possible, I would measure my stress coat & dose only the appropriate amount, into the pail of new water before adding it to the tank. In case it is what is hurting your Betta, I'd skip the Excel for a while (with the reduced photoperiod & the one two punch you just executed, you should be okay for a while, anyway). I can't speak to the GH+ -- I don't add anything to my tanks except a little all in one fertilizer (Easy Green) which I only started doing in the last few weeks. I am a fan of leaving the water chemistry alone as much as possible though (which is all well and good for me, since I apparently have decent tap water). Unfortunately I don't yet understand GH enough to give competent advice on whether you can skip this. Do make sure you are dosing appropriate amount - only for the water you are changing, and not the whole tank, etc.

Once a week (not with a water change) I dose my fertilizer, Thrive. If I don't, the leaves start getting holes in them.
I've not heard of any of the popular all in one ferts causing algae or fish harm, so as long as you aren't overdosing it, I wouldn't stop this one.

Circulation:
I have a pre-filter sponge on my outtake but I also have an airstone to keep the surface moving. Ammonia and nitrites are always at 0. If nitrates are above 10, it tends to mean algae/dying plants so I look for dying matter and remove it.
This sounds like it is okay. I have never heard of nitrates hurting plants (other than it maybe encouraging algae) -- even when they have gotten to 80, it's only the animals who have had issue, from what I've read/experienced. Honestly, if my nitrates are below 10 in a planted tank, I'm worried about my plants -- this is another situation where I am a complete newb though, so take that one with a grain of salt!

Other:
Carbon's already been out for a while.
Excellent! I really think carbon is almost always unnecessary, if not downright detrimental to the regular functions of a planted tank!

I hope that none of this comes off as condescending -- it is so hard to know where someone is starting from, how much experience in which areas of aquaria they have, etc. etc. I've read straight up conflicting advice from "experts" repeatedly -- it makes me a little crazy! Anyway, for the plants I would pick a plan and stick with it for not less than 1 month. It really takes that long to see any real change, IMO. For your betta however, I would be reading everything I can online & posting on the fish forum about the clamping fins. Old age/end of lifespan is always a possibility, of course. Still. A lone betta in a 5 gallon palace should be a bubble nest making king, IMO!

Good luck!

 

@Cinnamonamon It looks like the dang algae is returning. There's some spots on the glass (too faint to tell what color algae it is), and some bubbles forming on leaves, rocks, and gravel where some spots of brown algae are forming.

 

Ugh! I really like fishlab for info -- maybe some of this will help?

https://fishlab.com/brown-algae/

 

@Cinnamonamon Thank you for the link! I read through it and decided to try Phosguard. I put it in three days ago.

Between the last time I posted and the Phosguard, I can't tell if the brown algae is spreading or not. It's kind of dusty and loose-looking, like the way it looked when the One-Two Punch killed it off the first time. Then small bubbles began developing. There's a lot of bubbles in it today, all over the substrate, rocks, and plants--not sure if this is good or bad. I'm going to do a water change and try to clean what I can.

 

I recently had problems with diatom algae in my 40 breeder. The tank has been set up for a couple of years, so I had to go through the laundry list of possible issues.

Long story short, simply surface vacuuming wasn't enough as at the time as most of the plants I had were rhizome plants. Stuff that was in the substrate wasn't being broken down and used as a food source for plants. Once I gave the tank a serious vacuuming ( I did half one week at the water change, then the other the following week also at the water change) the algae problem went away.

As far as phosphates go, I bought a kit as it isn't something I test for very often. Phosphate levels in my tank were .2, so no, it isn't just phosphates that can cause problems with diatoms. I feed my fish Northfin pellets and frozen plankton and brine shrimp. I don't feed them both at the same time, nor are the fish fed every day; they're fed every other day.

On days I feed frozen, I thaw out the food first, then rinse well with clean water to remove all the phosphates and stuff that frozen foods are usually packed with.

I feed my plants once a week. Now that I have lots of Rudy Red Vals in my tank, I surface vac where they are along with the Dwarf Sag, but everywhere else gets a deep vac every week, so I haven't needed to supplement with root tabs. I also do filter maintenance on a regular basis and do 30-50% water changes weekly. I also started relying on my weekly TDS readings more. Obviously a TDS reading isn't going to tell me exactly what is going on, but when I was having this problem, my TDS levels were in the 220 range prior to water changes. Now the new 'ceiling' of what is acceptable is in the 150 range. Nitrate levels were / are fine so that hasn't changed.

The tanks' photo period is 6 hours. I bought a new light recently, but I haven't had problems with algae because of too much light.

I don't know if any of this is helpful or not, but this is how I beat my diatom problem.

 

Because of the ongoing issue of algae and plants dying, I'm wondering if there's dead root clods in the substrate and if that's aiding the algae.

I ended up throwing a lot of plants out today, because they weren't thriving (they were slowly dying) and algae kept coming back on them. I only kept a few cryptos, dwarf sag, anubias and anubias nana petite.

It's frustrating to start out with a scape you like, only to have it slowly dismantled as time goes on. Plants that you like but won't grow properly, rocks you have to avoid (like lava rocks) because of a betta's long fins. I was fine with being limited to low tech plants (my nanos have a variety of neat low-tech plants), but it seems like nothing truly works in the 5 gallon. Even if I've grown a plant for a long time in my other nano tanks, if I put it in the 5 gallon, it gets covered in diatoms.
@Smooch When you did your deep vacuum cleaning, what substrate did you have? Did you replace it? When I try to vacuum past the surface layer, I encounter mud bricks of aquasoil that try to clog up the python. Then the tank gets so cloudy that I have to do several 90% water changes to get it at all clearish. It's been a few days since I did the last water change and the whole tank is still a little cloudy. I just wish I knew if the substrate itself is the problem or if I should try to leave it alone as much as possible.

Part of me wishes I could completely tear down this tank and start new, but the betta would have nowhere to go. I wonder if I should just remove all the plants and go with some kind of driftwood scape instead. Maybe a river biotope with pebbles for substrate.

 

@Smooch When you did your deep vacuum cleaning, what substrate did you have? Did you replace it? When I try to vacuum past the surface layer, I encounter mud bricks of aquasoil that try to clog up the python. Then the tank gets so cloudy that I have to do several 90% water changes to get it at all clearish. It's been a few days since I did the last water change and the whole tank is still a little cloudy. I just wish I knew if the substrate itself is the problem or if I should try to leave it alone as much as possible.

Part of me wishes I could completely tear down this tank and start new, but the betta would have nowhere to go. I wonder if I should just remove all the plants and go with some kind of driftwood scape instead. Maybe a river biotope with pebbles for substrate.

My substrate is a hodge-podge of things. Carib Sea Peace gravel, Flourite, Eco-Complete, Fluval Stratrum and misc other kinds of gravel. Sans the Fluval Stratrum which was left over from another project, I've had this same substrate for over 4 years. I like the way it looks and I don't like swapping substrates due to the fact that it wipes out the tanks' bacterial bed.

There has been talk around here recently about Aqua Soil and how there hasn't been much consistency from one bag to the next. I've never used it, so I can't say anything about it. What I will say though is: if a substrate was keeping me from doing what should be normal tank maintenance, it would not be allowed to stay in my tank. I don't find it worth the aggravation of having to keep finding a work around for something fish poop on, but that's just me.

I'm not telling you what to do, but if you opt to swap out your substrate, here's how I do it:

I only swap out a 1/4 of the substrate at a time and only do so at a water change, so it takes me 4 weeks. I've never had a problem with ammonia spikes doing it this way.

 

I have to figure out whether to keep the ADA Aquasoil or if I want to switch to Tropica Aquarium Soil. I'll probably try and find out first if other people with ADA Aquasoil has theirs behave in the way that mine does, and if this is normal.

I really wanted my nature-scene-based hardscape to work. I had a bonsai and worked hard on my aquascape but the algae makes it hard to grow smaller plants that I feel like I'll probably have to give up. I'm just not sure how to solve the problem in a way that keeps the plants healthy. I've tried all the popular low-tech plants, and most just gets hair algae or brown algae and dies. Mosses (christmas and weeping)

If I give up the current scape, I might try a southeast Asia blackwater biotope, and top the substrate with some this and other leaf litter.