What are brown algae exactly?<\/h2>\n
Brown algae in your aquarium can be recognized by the brown deposit layer on your plants, decoration or glass. Sometimes they look like slime, sometimes they look like dust. Brown algae are also called diatoms.<\/p>\n
Below you will find a “nice” example of brown algae deposits in an aquarium:<\/p>\n Attention:<\/strong> does it feel very rough and have hairs? Then you are probably dealing with black beard algae instead of brown algae (both can be confused with each other). For beard algae, read my strategy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n To keep it short, the cause of brown algae is the excess of waste in the water. Once you cross a certain boundary, you really don’t have to wait long for brown algae to appear. Here are a few examples of how it can happen:<\/p>\n You can already see it coming\u2026 just one \u2013 or a combination \u2013 of the above scenarios is enough to give brown algae a chance due to the accumulation of waste in your tank. The natural balance is disturbed and\/or your filter can’t keep up anymore and the first brown spots are already there!<\/p>\n Did you get brown algae 2-3 weeks after setting up your aquarium? That’s perfectly normal!<\/p>\n Your tank is not yet in balance and still needs to “mature”. The plants have to adapt to their new environment and the bacterial culture in your filter and aquarium is in full development. In short: your tank is not yet completely balanced and it is still looking for an equilibrium. I sometimes call this the “awkward phase” of your aquarium. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n My advice:<\/strong> in this case, don’t make too many changes in your aquarium, give it a chance to mature sufficiently and just be patient. The algae will go away by themselves. Adjusting all kinds of things all the time will only cause more problems.<\/p>\n Does your aquarium suffer from brown algae while it’s not in its start-up phase? Then I have the following step-by-step plan for you to remove brown algae from your aquarium. This plan consists of 3 major parts: removing present algae, giving the plants a boost and then preventing brown algae from coming back.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, there is no “brown algae aquarium” magic formula, so you will have to get your hands dirty…<\/p>\n Now that you have removed as much of the brown algae as possible, it is time for a severe water change<\/a> and a good cleaning of the soil<\/strong>. After manually removing brown algae, you can bet that a lot of the stuff is still floating around in your tank. This is where you need to start siphoning everything off, which is why it is important that you change big part of the water quickly.<\/p>\n You score twice here because not only does your water look much better without those debris, it also contains a bunch of fresh minerals in one go.<\/p>\n You can almost blindly assume that some of your plants won’t look too good if your tank is troubled by brown algae. Quite often, rotting plants are even the ones causing brown algae. Time for an action plan!<\/p>\n Also, ensure a sufficient water flow: does the flow reach all plants? This is important to ensure that all nutrients and CO2 reach your plants so that they can grow optimally.<\/p>\n Once you have taken care of your plants, it is time to maintain your filter! You have to clean it once in a while to prevent it from clogging up. If that happens, your filter will not function optimally and less power means less water circulation<\/a> and therefore less waste processing. And this is exactly one of the causes of brown algae in an aquarium.<\/p>\n You’ve noticed it already, removing brown algae is no fun! Now that you’ve made all these efforts to clean up that mess, you’d better take action to prevent brown algae from coming back in the future.<\/p>\n You guessed it, no grand strategies are involved here, but some discipline. What is the ideal maintenance routine to avoid brown algae?<\/p>\n Performing your aquarium maintenance once a week is the absolute minimum! Don’t panic, it doesn’t have to take hours:<\/p>\n In addition to the technical stuff, you also have to maintain your plants to keep them in top shape:<\/p>\n Plants are not only decorative, they also have a filtering and waste processing function and they provide more oxygen to the water. Excellent reasons to take good care of them!<\/p>\n![\"brown](\"https:\/\/planted-box.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/bruine-algen-aquarium.jpg\")
What causes brown algae in a freshwater aquarium?<\/h2>\n
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Brown algae when setting up your aquarium<\/h2>\n
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How to remove brown algae from your aquarium? Follow this stepwise plan<\/h2>\n
Step 1 to remove brown algae from an aquarium: deal with waste!<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nStep 2: Give your aquarium plants a health boost<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Step 2 to remove brown algae from your aquarium: prevent them from coming back!<\/h2>\n
Very regular maintenance<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Keeping plants in top shape<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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