brown algae info/? and substrate

[Cammie]

I had wrote some time back about a constant brown slime outbreak in a small
desktop freshwater aquarium. Water parameters were always fine, filtration
good, lights not on past 10 hours a day. I cleaned the stuff up and it
kept coming back to coat the substrate and glass. Even talked with Fish
Tech here and there any all were puzzled. Anyways...

I just read an article on about.com (
http://freshaquarium.about.com/library/series/blalgaebrown.htm ) about brown
algae and it stated that some substrates can cause high silicates and cause
this algae. I have something called Small Aquarium Substrate in the tank
from Foster & Smith. Can this be the problem??? (side note, the silicates
are not from my water, as I have well water).

I am switching to a polished recycled black glass sand this weekend. I have
the true blue/emerald green "sea gems" in my large tank and it is
magnificent, no algae in that tank and it reflects light great. I get it
from gelstuff.com ( http://www.gelstuff.com/seagems.html ).

Anyways, back to the current substrate and silicates theory. Do you think
this could be the cause?