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Hello guys, my tank recently had brown algae growth with air pockets. I think I should remove them but I'm afraid it might affect water quality or even frighten the shrimps.

You have a couple of options really, you can just stir up the gravel substrate to remove the air pockets and this won't disturb the shrimp too much or if you wish to remove the brown algae your best plan of attack would be to literally move he gravel back wards and get a scraper and just go at it then pull the gravel back down into the gap between the glass and the pile of gravel again.

Don't worry about disturbing the shrimp because they will settle down again. Plan it out to reduce the amount of time you are moving and cleaning! If it helps I've got to move house soon and moving a whole tank will disturb them a hell of a lot but I'm not worried.


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odin wrote:You have a couple of options really, you can just stir up the gravel substrate to remove the air pockets and this won't disturb the shrimp too much or if you wish to remove the brown algae your best plan of attack would be to literally move he gravel back wards and get a scraper and just go at it then pull the gravel back down into the gap between the glass and the pile of gravel again.

Don't worry about disturbing the shrimp because they will settle down again. Plan it out to reduce the amount of time you are moving and cleaning! If it helps I've got to move house soon and moving a whole tank will disturb them a hell of a lot but I'm not worried.


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Thanks odin. At first I was thinking whether do I even need to remove the water and the substrate entirely.

I wouldn't go that far personally but have you thought about getting a nerite snail to tackle the brown algae ? They eat it all you see :)


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Yeah. I had 2 horned nerite snails. However, they won't go into the substrate and eat the algae

Let us know how you get on!

Lots of people who keep marine aquariums are reluctant to disturb their substrates because of all the useful nitrying bacteria that live in the anaerobic parts of the substrate that are killed if exposed to oxygenated water. I don't know whether the same is true for brackish opae ula tanks though.

In salt water they call them diatoms. Usually are on surface of substrate but not always. Usually go away.