Is there such a thing as brown algae in a freshwater tank?

Question

The rocks and plants in my aquarium have a brown stain on them. I thought at first it was a deposit left from using aquarium peat. Now the water is cloudy also. The Nitrite is 0, and the nitrate are in acceptable levels.

Answer 1

Yes - you can get brown algae in freshwater it's often an indicator that something may be amiss with your water. I would venture a guess and say your tank is going through a cycle, if you just introduced fish, medicated or took out a large amount of water it's possible.

Answer 2

Yes, this is a very common nuisance. It develops most often when there are extra nutrients in your tank (from overfeeding or too much fish poop). The best way to get rid of it is to scrape it off, do 15% gravel vacuumings, and feed your fish less food. The only way to prevent this issue from arising again is to keep your tank clean and feed your fish less. Most chemicals to kill algae will not work on brown algae (brown algae is already almost dead) because they will not accomplish much, will not remove the algae, and may mess with your fish, inverts, plants, and water parameters. Email me if you have any questions.

Nosoop4u

Answer 3

Newer tank right? Scrape it off, its not good. Keep doing it until the green algae comes.
May have to do with underlighting and over feeding.
Leave the lights on longer.

Answer 4

always remember...
algae grows because of:
-excess food - algae thrive because of overfeeding, they finish off the extra food your fish leaves behind.

-lighting/sunlight - remember that eventhough they are algae, they are still plant-like, they need sunlight for their photosynthesis.. so more light is more chances for them to thrive..

-healthy water quality - of course we always need to have near perfect water quality to ensure the longetivity of your fish.
so for this, it's inevitable.

but, you can control the other variables for algae growth..
these 3 things are controlled, meaning you could control their growth..
so it's dependent on you which variable you decrease..

hope this helps!