Coping with Brown and Blue-Green Algae

The blue-green algae are the ones that should give greatest cause for concern because the conditions that lead to their growth are actually harmful to fish.

In the case of the other two types, (the green and brown variety), conditions which stimulate their growth will not generally be harmful to fish, unless they are extreme.

Therefore, correction of conditions is absolutely essential where blue-green algae are concerned treatment with an algae remedy may remove the algae, but it will not re-establish healthy conditions for the fish unless you change up to half of the water in the tank.

Time and space do not allow for discussion of other type of algae such as seaweed!

The brown encrusting algae is a relative of the green algae, although the conditions that stimulate the growth are the exact opposite of the one causing the growth of the green. The later case, which is excessive illumination, has already been discussed.

With brown algae, the cause lies in the difficulty to estimate the correct amount by which the light level should be increase.

The case is obvious in the aquarium glass and components.

These brown stains are common with aquarist whose tanks are place in a dark corner away from the doses of natural daylight - Sunlight.

Sooner than usual, the aquarist loses interest since his view of the fish is impaired. Hose problem takes a worse turn the moment it develops non-chalant attitude towards increasing the light level.

The remedy is simple increase the light level by a third. The wattage of the light, for example should be 10 watts per square foot surface area per 10 hours per day.