Brown algae?? What is this

[Jugse]

I set this tank up like 7 weeks ago and I've noticed that there's some brownish stuff growing on the glass, plants, gravel and decorations but I'm not quite sure what it is yet, and how do I get rid of it? There's A LOT

 

[carsonsgjs]

Looks like diatoms to me. Very common in newly set up tanks and it should go away as the tank stabilises and matures. You should also be able to clean it off fairly easily.

 

[Kassh4815]

This happened in my tank after it was about a month old. Added some ghost shrimp and did regular cleaning of decor and it is resolving itself now.

 

[Jugse]

This happened in my tank after it was about a month old. Added some ghost shrimp and did regular cleaning of decor and it is resolving itself now

How do i get it off the leaves??

 

[Kassh4815]

Shrimp took care of most the leaves but it comes off suuuuuper easy with a gentle wipe with the same thing you use for the glass. It will eventually go away on its own from everything I’ve read though.

 

[Jugse]

I have a crayfish, will that help??

 

[Tryne]

Crayfish will consume some of the algae but not nearly as much as shrimp or snails. You won't see any noticeable difference with or without. Crayfish are especially usefull for removing dead plant matter, they love to tear apart dead leaves. That's what mine did in my first tank.

If you want to get it off leaves, you need shrimp and snails, corydoras can help with algae as well. And time.

Here's a picture of my tank going through Brown diatoms starting from 2 weeks after tank start and green algae after some 6 weeks. After 2 months, algae free without intervention from my side except WC. Just shrimp, snails and corydoras are enough.

50% WC the first 2 weeks.
50% WC every 2 days the third week.
50% WC two times the fourth week.
50% WC from 5th week to now, every sunday.

Also, obviously, the more plants you have, the easier algae gets beaten.

day3:



day 27, brown diatoms appearing everywhere:



Day ~48, green algae taking over everything:



A few days ago, no more algae:

 

[Sobhan]

Turn off the filter, use a toothbrush to scrape them off of leaves and then do a water change and turn the filter on. When tank is cycled you could get otos or shrimos
depending on your tank size and a couple of nerite snails right now will also do the job, all these will clean the substrate as well as glass and hardscape, leaves evrything of diatoms.

 

[Jugse]

I have a crayfish, and he ate all the snails