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Re: Brown algae
Harold Pachtman wrote, Mon, Nov. 10:
>.......I got two *true* Siamese Algae Eaters, and in one
>week all the green algae was gone, but I still have the brown algae.
>BTW, even scraping with my fingernails cannot remove this. The SAEs are
>eating flake mpw that the green algae is gone. I dont know how to get
>rid of this. I have an 60 gal tank lit by 3 Chroma 50s and one cool
>white bulb.
>
If scraping with your fingernails doesn't remove it, then it probably isn't
algae at all. Chances are that you have an iron deposit due to an excess
of iron being solubilized by reducing conditions under the gravel and then
diffusing out into the water from the gravel and then getting oxidized and
precipitating on the sides as a brown ferric hydroxide deposit. When you
have a good, dense plant growth, this depositing of iron will cease because
of the increased aeration of the soil by the plant roots.
Paul Krombholz in, chilly, cloudy Jackson, Mississippi