Brown Algae - Part 1

Just as I began to wonder why I have never in my many years of aquarium setups ever had algae...I can now officially say that for the first time ever I now have a case of brown algae. There is one main conclusion I came to as to why this has started happening and that reason I found is due to adding a tank heater into my established aquarium (and yes, actually using it more permanently for once). I started keeping my tank at around 68F and higher, it took about 1-2 weeks and I began to notice some ugly brown patchy substance coating its way onto everything in my tank. According to my research, this also has to do with high nitrate levels, silicates and phosphates. Phosphates have never been tested in my aquarium before, so now I will be going to my local pet-store, picking up a p3/p4 test kit and discovering where my tank rates on its scale. My nitrate level is beginning to decrease with more regular water changes and cleaning which now rates at a level 50 in my tank (however, there has been no decrease in brown algae thus far) which is supposedly mid-range according to the test strips I have been using.

There are several ways in which I can try to tackle this issue of brown algae.

Tetra EasyBalance Water Treatment (Said to reduce nitrate and phosphate, I also currently own this, so I will be trying this first.)

Microbe-Lift GSC Gravel & Substrate Cleaner for Aquariums (Said to reduce and bind nutrients including phosphates.)

Tetra Algae Control (Said to control brown algae as well as several other types of algae.)

According to my research there are also means of using live plants in hopes that the plants can out-compete the brown algae in nutrients. There are also certain fish/snails/etc which also consume brown algae.

To be continued...