Brown Algae (Diatom)

Freshwater Brown Algae (Diatom) is different from marine brown algae. It's harmless and the most common algae anywhere.

Diatom usually appears as a thin brown film on the surface of anything like aquarium glass, gravel, stones, equipments or leaves. They appear in low-light aquariums and new set-ups. This brown algae grows rapidly in water with pH above 7.5, so it's important to always keep your pH level around 7 to avoid the algae bloom. It's been known that strong lights make this brown algae go away, but they might still be seen on shadowed area like aquarium plants' bottom-leaves. Algae eaters like Gyrinocheilus aymonieri, Otocinclus, Siamese algae eater and algae eater snails can keep down this algae population.