[MMAfish35]

I have attached a photo of my tank. There is some sort of brown algae on the roots of my floating plants. I do weekly water changes. I run two 22inch t5 glo bulbs on the tank that are meant for plants. I use dirt substrate capped by pool filter sand. Does anyone know what type of algae this is and how to clear it up? Thanks for any help.

 

[NeonFlux]

Looks like brown fuzz algae, or diatoms. This is usually due to high organics, silicates, excess feeding, maybe poor water circulation, nutrient imbalance, and etc in the water. You should do a large water change, ( 50% every week is good if you can) also make sure you feed the fish sparingly less and not too way much. Make sure that they finish out of the food without any leftovers on the substrate. You could get yourself some ottocinclus to help eat those algae up if you want, they love them. Good luck.

 

[jentralala]

Do you disturb the substrate a lot? It actually to me looks like debris/dirt trapped in the roots. Can you try removing one of the plants and see if you can rinse it off?

 

[MMAfish35]

I do a 50 percent water change at least once a week, sometimes more. I do tend to feed heavy, but that is because I have a lot of fish in there. I ry and make sure some flake gets to the ground for my corys, bumblebee, pleco, and yoyo loaches. I have a bubbler in the tank because I've read that it helps the corys. I am also reading now that it can cause a lot of CO2 to be lost and promote algae in a planted tank. I shake the plants in the water and the brown algae falls off and I clean a lot of it out, but it comes back pretty quick. I have a HOB filter on that disturbs the water pretty well, plus the bubbler.