Reddish/Brown Stuff

RandallW20

I have some kind of reddish/brown "dust like" substance growing in two of my tanks. It brushes off pretty easy. Is it some kind of algea? Should I be concerned? One tank is about 1 1/2 months old and the other is 4 months old... Water parameters in both are... Nitrite: 0 ppm Nitrate: 10 ppm Ammonia: 0ppm Thanks! Randall

jeaninel

Sounds like diatom algae. It's pretty common in new tanks. Eventually it should go away. I still get diatom algae in my 37 gallon which has been set up since July '08 but it isn't as bad as it used to be. My 10 gallon took about a year for it to go away. I never got any in my 55 gallon for some strange reason. Just dust it off before each water change.

bigk_54

It's just 100% unsightly! I get it in my tank that is a year old. Like Jeaninel said when you do a H20 change brush it off and suck it up the best you can, when I get it pretty bad I have one of the kids follow my hand with the siphon hose as I brush they catch it and suck it into the bucket

Mikaila31

Or you can get some fish to eat it for you.

Diatoms don't stand a chance in any of my tank.

RandallW20

Ahhhhh, good news. Thanks!

Mikaila31, that explains why its not in my 20 gal. Cause I have a cory in there. I bet he eats it all.
Where as the other two tanks don't have a fish that would eat it.

Thanks Guys!!!
Randall

Byron

I've never seen corys eat algae (green, brown or red); they graze over it looking for particles of edible food. Otocinclus will eat it. If this is a planted tank, you should put in a couple of otos. But if you don't have plants, be aware that otos spend their days grazing algae from plant leaves, wood, rocks, etc., and without it they will probably not survive. As previous posters correctly said, the brown is diatom (type of algae) and it is common and should dissipate.

RandallW20

Oh......I thought they ate some algae...guess not
Anyhow, no. All my tanks have fake plants until I get real good at it then I'm going to get a 55 gal planted and transfer my tropical fish to it
Can't wait for that day.

The only thing is I'd hate to give up my 20 gal. As the fiance will only allow me to keep 2 tanks and a hospital. And the 10 gall would make a better hospital tank than the 20......

What I REALLY want is a paludarium with some exotic frogs or small lizards.....8)


And maybe one day a coral aquarium, a 34 gal Nano Cube would be nice for that....But I'm not getting my hopes up on that any time soon.....

Jai ullu

Actually......Corys dont eat alge. In fact they hate alge and plant like things. So maybe its another kind of fish.

parakeeto225

hey jeaninel! You have a good collection of fish.. right now I have two cory fish and a betta... Almost gonna upgrade to a 20 gallon and get two more corydoras!

parakeeto225

My corydoras love to eat algae wafers and cucumbers