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hey everyone,
i'm concerned about these brown spots starting to appear on Squirtle's rock, plants, and on the tank windows... what exactly is it and what can i do to get rid of it? i did a complete water change last weekend and cleaned everything in his tank (scrubbed off the brown spots) but they're re-appearing again.

Its probably just brown algae, do you have the tank near any windows or direct sunlight?

nope the tank is in the basement, it's not next to any windows.

Is the UVB over the whole tank or just the basking area. I have the same thing only it's just under the UVB.

the UVB is just on the side of the basking area, and now that i look at it, the brown spots are in that area. so it's because of the UVB light? how do i stop more from appearing?

Unfortunately, algae grows where ever there is light. Cleaning the tank regularly can help control it but it will never go away.

If you want to use a chemical algae remover, just be careful because some of those chemicals can kill the beneficial bateria that grows in the tank. This bacteria helps control ammonia and nitrite levels and is important to maintain.

scrub it down everyweek

Not all algae thrive in light. It could also be a bacteria build-up, which can develop pretty fast. Wipe it off as soon as it starts to build up.

It sounds like diatoms (a type of algae) which thrive in low light (the tank is in the basement?). Not dangerous, just unsightly. You could try increasing the ambient light in the tank and see if that slows their return.

My tank gets those once I pass the one week mark of not cleaning the tank. it grows on the rocks first then spreads to the tank. Just scrub it.