K
karen
Guest
Ok, I'm pretty much at a loss....tonight I had to clean out my tank again (I did it about a month ago). I'm battling some serious brown algae and I don't know where this stuff is coming from. hand feed my newts, so there's no excess food left in the tank. I keep the shades closed while I'm at work, so there's not a lot of light in the room and I don't put the fluorescent lights on until it's night. I check the water regularly and everything is ok (zero ammonia and nitrites, low nitrates, 6.6 pH) I went to the store and bought some new gravel b/c the gravel I used was white so it showed the brown algae pretty bad, it was also porous, so it was almost impossible to clean. I bought some darker gravel that's more smooth, so I'm hoping it will be easier to maintain. Does anyone have any ideas? I've also had an issue with sediment buildup; it's alarming me because I've never had to clean the tank once a month. I saw some algae treatments in the pet store today but I'm hesitant about adding any chemicals to the water. Has anyone used these algae treatments with any success? Or are there any solutions I haven't thought of?