african chiclids and algae

Question
hello real person,i have a 55g african chiclid tank, not in dirct light,i do not over feed,watch over my ph  and water temp.keep everyone happy but me.there is a brown algae that creeps in and covers everything.....apart from scrubbing it off i don't know what to do....no department store chemicals please.i keep it all simple.any help???

Answer
Laurie,                                                                Your brown algae are diatoms. If you have city water sometimes they use so much buffer too soften the  water  it makes them grow very rapidly. If you have well water you may be by farming community and fertilizer makes this grow rapidly. The only thing I can recommend to you is reverse osmosis. This is a very fancy term that means replace your water from another source. Go to moms or a friend whos water comes from a different source and replace as you do water changes. You can also use bottled water not distilled just cheap gallons of pathmark or grocery water. Do this everytime you do a water change do part of it with this other water and eventually your water will be more of another water than your tap and that should help it. You can get Jungle algae no more tabs and that will also help break up some of that organic matter.....Good Luck, Tina