I used to have such beautifulgreen algae on my ornaments. Now the brown algae is stuck to the side of the tank in small batches, on my filter, ornaments. it is quite ugly! I have been trying to get some more light in the tank for a couple of hours a day. Anyone have any advice?

The way I understand it is green algae=good, brown algae=icky.

I have beautiful green algae on the glass under the light and that is it. I leave it there and let it hang down into the water for Moby and Florence to snack on and I love the diffused green light it gives the tank.

As for the brown algae, it is my enemy. I hate it. Its nasty and has bad bacteria, so I'm a fiend about scrubbing it off the ornaments, glass, bottom of the tank, etc.

If I were you I'd go for less sunlight in the tank, as it promotes algae bloom, unfortunately both green and brown.

I think green algae needs more intense light, not necessarily more hours of light. If your lighting setup hasn't changed, than perhaps there is less light being produced by the bulb (it is aging) or there is simply less light reaching the ornaments and such (is the glass tank top under the light needing to be cleaned?). Brown algae isn't actually harmful, it is just ugly.

Check out this topic in "frequently asked questions" concerning brown and green algae: http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...opic=17&hl=

Also, I don't think this topic qualifies as an "emergency", so may be better suited for the "water quality" section.

Yep, the mods will probably move this soon. Do you have artificial lighting on your tank? If so, what type of light is it? It could also be a plant nutrient deficiency. Algae colonies, like live plants, need nutrients to stay healthy. NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) are the big 3 nutrients, and regular Florish for trace nutrients. Nitrogen would come from the nitrate as well as nitrite and ammonia (if present) that occurs naturaly from having fish in the tank. Phosphorus is usually present in the food and fish waste. The only elements that may be missing is Potassium and trace nutrients. You could add all of the above if they are not showing up on water testing, but you would have to be carefull not to overdose since it could be harmful to your fish, not to mention causing an algae bloom. A good balance is 10-20 ppm for nitrate, 1ppm or less for phosphorus, and about 10-20 ppm for potassium.

I used to have nice, wavy algae in my 20g tank, just after I put a new 15 watt daylight (6700K) bulb in the tank. After about 2 months, the algae died off, except for what is on the back wall of the tank. The back wall is next to a window that gets about 2 hours of sunlight in the late afternoon.

I didn't realize it was list as an emergency. yikes! I tought I just put it under discussion! Sorry!

I did get different lighting, it is a bit more mild than my other bulbs. I may have to check that and change it out!