So I have a large piece of driftwood that is a fairly new addition to the tank, and it has been growing alot of brown algea, especially directly under the biowheel filter waterfalls.

What is this exactly, is it bad, should I do anything to prevent this or just wipe it off as it builds up?



Thanks OFLs.

If you are not overfeeding and haven't got too many hours of light, algae growth will usually happen in healthy tanks.
And it will form quicker close to the outlets of your filter.
Close to my outlet there's allmost half an inch of mosslike algae but i hardly ever clean that.lol, it makes the PVC outlet look narural!
If there's too much algae on decor or wood i just wipe it off with my fingers while i keep the hose close to the spot during waterchange.
My remedy against the algae was introducing a Hypostomus Pleco.

Before and after pics:



But he still doesn't clean the algae of the fake plants.
And most plecos are lazy and will not clean algae thoroughly.
The pleco that does the job good was actually my seventh pleco and the first one to clean anything.

If the algae is tough i use a "tank-only-nailbrush".
Allways use new brushes and never take any used ones for any soap residue may kill you beneficial bacteria.

Cool, thanks. Beautiful pleco you got there. I have a bristlenose in the tank that I hoped would clean out most of the algea...but he must be one of the lazy ones...hehe


I guess I won't worry too much about it then...I like the wipe off with finger while keeping hose close-by idea...I'll probably implement this into my future cleanings...Thanks

that brownish algae is very easy to clean...i get it in my 20 gallon...im not sure why but i do