I had a plant whith an brown red spot (rust colored) after a temp drop it seems to be showing everywhere. So I suspect it is an algae, instead of a damaged leave. The rust colored patches algae prefers the plants, the ceramic pots and my big stones.

What is it? And how do I get rid of it.

My tank just cycled so I rather not have to start over, but if that is the only way to get rid of it, I will.

sounds like brown algae what is the wattage of your lights how many bulbs and what size tank. Brown algae tends to live in low light situations if you up your lighting it should go away, although brown algae does not grow on plants it is usually black brush and green.

I've already googled black brush and it does not look like it. What I have in the tank looks like rust.

It's a secondhand tank and I think it are 2 tl's of each 32 Watt. I will check the print on it tonight, and hopefully the wattage is still readeble.

Tank is 70 gal.

So how do you 'up' lighting. The hood only has place for 2 tl-light's.

I've just checked the wattage. They are 38 each.

It looks like it are 2 types, one is 'tropic' and the other is 'natur'. I suppose those have a different combination of wavelenghts.

I'm still angry at the rusty stuff (and myself, I'd forgotten to bleach the plants due to Xmas), I was planning on transferring Gigi at the end of this week, because se has had a few slight bouts of SBD due to the overstocking of my smaller tank.

With 76 watts for a 70 gallon tank, you're just a smidge above 1-watt per gallon. If you want to decrease the brown algae, you may want to consider increasing the lighting time or finding a way to increase your wattage.

What is the max with the lighting time? At the moment I'm around 12u light/ 12 Dark

What do you need to know to buy tls in higher wattage? Anything else besides how long they are?

I hope this can help

Photobucket was down so I had to do it differently
http://picasaweb.google.com/annemiekecools...573091203668514
The rust is on my bubler as wel, those dots around the top.

I would swear that the rust is only on things that are in direct lamp light.

Sorry for the multiple posting.
I just remembered that on the 'natur' tl lamp stood 9000K. Does anyone knows what it means?
Could this have an influence on the rust problem?

In the book "Fancy Goldfish" (you can buy it here among other places, great book! http://goldfishconnection.com/shop/details...=1&catId=3), it's recommended 8 hours of complete darkness, and the rest full light. But most people I think do 8-12 of light, and the rest dark.

I'm on the border between green & brown algae and all algae tend to grow on the topside of things (towards the light). They conduct photosynthesis just like green algae, but can dominate in low-light environments. It probably wouldn't hurt your fish to leave the light on a couple more hours a day, but I'm not sure how much of a change it's going to do for you.

Here's a link to the pinned thread about Brown Algae. You may have to consider an alternative if increasing the time isn't enough.

If more light a day doesn't work then I'm considering treating the entire tank with potasium permanganate. I even asked our apothecary wether they had any, and they do. They have it always in stock . Is there a way to get the algae of the plants?
Do you think I can keep my biological media if I take that one out. Or should I boil it to be sure that I'm rid of it.

It is only brown and green algae nothing to nuke the tank over. You can as said increase your lighting, daily waterchanges will keep the algae at bay, spot dosing with ferts or you can take the plant out put it in some water and rub the leaves with algae on them it will come straight off that is also useful for removing black brush algae from plants.

What do you mean with that? I'm not a native English speaker so there are words and expressions I just don't know.

You're right those red brown algae are not dangerous but I find the rust very very ugly.

it means to inject the leaf with a syringe full of fertilizer or you can put fertilizers on that leaf instead of well in it. Instead of dosing the whole tank you dose one leaf directly is that a little clearer?

yes .

So what type of fertilizer is the best for the plant?
If I inject it in the leave how much and how big a needle?
If I put it on top of the leave, how much then?

I'm still rather new to aquatic plants

You can use the same dosage for injecting or putting on top of the leaf i can't remember the dose give me about an hour to find my ADA aquarium plant book

The book has gone missing?

actually it did lol. You can use any size syringe but the spot dosage is 2.5ml

I don't have any ferteliser at the moment, but I will buy it later this day or tomorrow.
What should it contain? Or what shouldn't it contain?

Sorry for replying late time differences and all if you can get flourish or flourish excel or even flourish iron they can help they are made by seachem. If you want to save your money it is easier to just rub the algae off the leaf.

I've tried that already and the algea is very stubborn. I just can't get it of it completely. I trie to rub it of but still more then one quarter does not want to part with the plant. So I'm hoping the shop has flourish

I've treated the hard leaved Anubias a couple of days ago. How often do I have to repeat that? The rust-colored agea has dimished only a bit, and due to the fertiliser the Anubias has a new leave. Those leaves grow fast. One day nothing the next an unfoilding leave. To make live a bit easyer for the plants I've moved them to the small tank so only very small mouths can nibble on it. It is also a bit more easy for me to treat the plants as the small tank is in the living room.

Do it every day for about a week. If you are noticing improvements then that is good just keep going. After a week if it is still there cut back to every second day.

The rust is still there, but it is getting problems. I'm still using the ferts, got a magnetic algea scrubber. I'm just starting to get green algea, and Junior and Benja love to nibble the rust of the plants. I leave the green algea so they can eat it, and they prefere the rusty stuff, go figure

I've never had such low nitrate values though. Less then 10