Brown Algae

Otto's should eat it up. It is brown algae, a diatom type algae.

I find Otto's can be very delicate fish and usually buy twice as many as I want to end up with, counting on them dieing. I put 60 in a 150 gallon tank and have about 20 nice fat ones now since Nov 2009.

can you put a picture?

I had the same problem that you do but when I got two oto's they ate that stuff up right away.
Get some oto's. They will take care of any algae you have.

Otos and h2o changes with airline tubing. This lets you suck it off plants ect without disturbing anything.

I have 2 otos in my 10g tank, and since doing a couple h2o changes removing as much as I could they are now established and keeping it in check...havent seen it since.

Thanks for the help. I probably OD on fertilizer...

I had quite a plague of this stuff recently. I'm told that it tends to come with newly established tanks, since these diatoms require the large amounts of silica that are released into the water column by new substrates (sand mainly).

I was told it would die off within eight weeks of the tank starting up... and like magic, it did. Though there's still a bit on older leaves.

Light levels make no difference. Cut back on the fertilizer a little by all means, but don't go overboard since you need to feed your plants enough to help them out-compete the algae. In a heavily planted tank, insufficient fertilisation for the plants is more likely to cause algae than overdoing it.

Problem with otos, in my limited (and demoralizing) experience, is they quite insist on dying. Bristlenose will eat brown diatoms, sometimes, maybe. SAEs are hard to find, but I've found much better at eating all types of algae.

Is the tank new?

Oh but the best way to remove it is your thumb. If you have that much time to waste on your hands, of course. Helps the lonely winter nights just fly by.

jerrytheplater said:

Otto's should eat it up. It is brown algae, a diatom type algae.

I find Otto's can be very delicate fish and usually buy twice as many as I want to end up with, counting on them dieing. I put 60 in a 150 gallon tank and have about 20 nice fat ones now since Nov 2009.

Click to expand...

I've had the opposite results. I added 6 otos Oct 09 and all are still happy

JWA said:

I've had the opposite results. I added 6 otos Oct 09 and all are still happy

Click to expand...

Woot!!! I wish I could say the same. I have some friends in our local plant club that experiance die offs too.

OhNo123 said:

Thanks for the help. I probably OD on fertilizer...

Click to expand...

Diatoms have nothing to do with dosing fertilizer. They are common in new tanks. Keep the tank and filter clean, keep up with water changes and don't stop feeding your plants unless you are using very low levels of light. Over time the diatoms will disappear on their own.

Otos will help. If you buy otos make sure to drip acclimate them for at least a few hours before adding them to your tank. They are sensitive to changes in water conditions, drip acclimating them slowly will help them make the transition.

I got 2 otos. I'm already aware of the drip acclimation and the acclimation process took 5 hours.

This tank is "new" in the sense that it was set up early september, but the sand is from a previous tank and the filter and media are all established (from the old tank).

My tank is pretty well lit so I guess I should be dosing some ferts again. I've stopped for the past week in hopes that diatoms will go away.

Dissolved silica and diatoms are both present in harder tap water and that is why newly established tanks can develop diatoms. Once the diatoms have used all of the silica in the water column, they stop reproducing. Only large water changes will provide enough silica to bring them back. They may hang on a little in low light parts of the tank because they cannot compete with green algae.
People who use DI or RO water usually will not get diatoms unless they are using sand substrates. Silica sand leaches A LOT of silica anions.

Interesting....

Diatoms aren't getting as crazy as they were before, but green algae is all over the glass.
2 otos and 1 olive nerite snail isn't making a dent in the amount of algae. However, my olive nerite must be really happy cause there is probably 20 eggs all over the front of my glass...Now i have to scape them off.. what a hassle.

I've read that Flourish Excel helps with algae? is this true? I want algae gone!