# Aggressive brown diatoms on my Pothos?



## KafkaDream (Dec 30, 2013)

I apologize in advance if this is technically in the wrong thread. 

I have a pothos plant in my 29 gal. goldfish tank (there are two fancies, no more than 2.5 years old. tank size follows the ruld of 15 gal. for the first goldfish, and 10 for each additional, with a bit of wiggle room) , firmly rooted and potted, not in the substrate. My tank is WELL established and has been running for over a year now. But I am just now having problems with this brown algae, possibly diatoms according to another forum I did some poking around on. It has been said that its the result of a new tank, and that it should fade out in 3-18 months. It not only grows on my glass but on top of the leaves of the plant as well, preventing it from photosynthesizing and thus growing/ doing well. It comes off when I rub the leaves in between my fingers but comes back within a few days! I do frequent water changes, 25% twice or thrice a week, its heavily filtered, and I have a smaller light for the tank to just supply the bare minimum for the one plant I've got that was recently thriving. There was a new baby leaf every week, but now I'm rapidly losing them! I don't dose with ferts. anymore, but I did use little ol' leafzone for a while (not the best, I know but it sure does keep my Italian Val. happy!) I have stopped dosing with ferts. in that tank since the problem arose around a month ago. Any advice on getting rid of the stuff, or do I just need to wait it out? I haven't tried anything yet, other than frequent water changes and scrubbing the leaves. Any advice is appreciated!


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## CelticRavens (Feb 21, 2015)

I add Pothos to my aquariums too, but have never had this problem.

Maybe add a bubble bar or two to increase the oxygen. And did you have brighter light on it before this showed up last month?


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## KafkaDream (Dec 30, 2013)

Yes, it did show up with the added light. I have tried leaving the light off for a few days to see if it would disappear but it didn't, and instead the leaves of my plant quickly weakened and developed holes and tears.


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

Since its an established tank-it might be due to either old light bulb (over 12mo old) wrong kelvin, too high watts and/or lights not on long enough.


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