hello, i hope im posting in the right area but im going about my brown algae! its not to bad but i have to keep the back of the glass clean. my water quality is very good i keep up with water changes weekly. i do have alot of live plants in the tank. so whats going on? is brown bad?

Brown algae is not bad. It is usually most bothersome in fairly new tanks and seems to disappear as the tank matures. It is not a true algae, but is diatoms. It is thought that the silicates present in the water from the gravel can help contribute to this, as can low light levels.

How long has your tank been running?

this certain tank has only been up since feb of this yr. its a 55 gallon. ive started to do the water changes last weekend and had to do another yesterday cuz of eggs that where found monday. so its a new tank for sure. plus i have alot of live plants in it.

What is the lighting on the tank?

well, its just one of those regular lights that come with the 55 gallons. umm... lol i dont know i bought the tank at pet super market here in fla. my plants are growing well, they have actually doubled in size. i took out some of my plants and found a good root system on them already. the tank has a double light setup can i post a pic?

i posted pix in the photo section. this is the new tank. also the same tank the fish have been breeding in.

yeah, it happens. my 55 was taken over by brown algae, but just recently, its been disapering and green has been growing like mad.

Most standard 55 gal hoods house (2) 15 W bulbs.

How long do you leave these lights on every day? Try raising that time. I used to leave mine on only about 5-6 hours per day (With the standard 30 watts that come with a 55 gal) and I had brown algae problems. I've since upped my daily average to about 9 hours per day, and it seems to be helping.

Yes 9-10 hours a day is a good number of hours.

It sounds like the plants are growing well. You may find that in a few months the brown algae will subside. That is generally what I have found with my tanks.

Algae can be so bothersome. I get a ton of it in my 55 gallon. Mine has a single bulb strip light. I get some brown and some green. I am scrubbing it twice a week! The tank has been running for many months and is still no better. My 30 gallon is mostly brown algae and its so ugly! Ah well, at least I have a good scrubbing sponge!

thanks guys, i started to leave lights on from about 7am till 5 or so sometimes longer cuz i run out for the day and not home to turn them off. the fish seem to like the algae they pick on it during the day. i did take out the snails in my tank "they did a good job cleaning the algae but destroyed the plants'' so they went bye-bye! (LOL) i remember in my 40 gallon i had seen some real bright green algae that was very pretty thats what im waiting in now.