snails or shrimp will do all the work for you, if you get shrimp I recommend cherry shrimp... they are good for beginner aquarists. As far as snails go I say get 2 nerite snails or maybe 3, they will surely get the job done...

 

Thanks again, I did had Cherry shrimp but they died as soon as I started dosing IRON, so does snails die as well ?

 

depends how much you dose but if followed by the amts on the bottle no

 

Thanks again, I was not overdosing but they still died or may be due to the fact I used Rain water instead of tap water(which was hard). I thought only excess copper kills shrimps.

 

shrimps require very sturdy parameters, do some more research on cherry shrimp an you may be able to learn more. they require steady parameters and RO usually doesn't work for them as it contains some things that aren't good for them.. unless adjusted.

 

Probably best not to offer advice if you don't know what you are talking about.

RO removes the minerals that shrimp need. The problem is that it doesn't contain the things that are good for them. This is why we have remineralizers that add back the necessary things like calcium and magnesium.

The reason most people don't successfully keep shrimp is because they don't understand the need for proper minerals (which translates into general hardness of water). Without the correct parameters there, the shrimp will eventually fail to molt properly resulting in death.

As for the diatoms, just wait them out. They are caused by excess silicates, and they will die off once they've consumed all of the excess.

 

It sounds like it might be just diatoms which are fairly common in newly setup tanks.

Nerite snails are good to help get rid of it. As well as frequent water changes. Depending on how big your tank is I would just try and vacuum the algae off of the substrate and rub it off the plants using your fingers or an unused toothbrush.

If it's not coming off easily then it might be some other algae.

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Thank you for your reply, I will do 50% water change now, mine is 29 gallon tank.

Bump:

Probably best not to offer advice if you don't know what you are talking about.

RO removes the minerals that shrimp need. The problem is that it doesn't contain the things that are good for them. This is why we have remineralizers that add back the necessary things like calcium and magnesium.

The reason most people don't successfully keep shrimp is because they don't understand the need for proper minerals (which translates into general hardness of water). Without the correct parameters there, the shrimp will eventually fail to molt properly resulting in death.

As for the diatoms, just wait them out. They are caused by excess silicates, and they will die off once they've consumed all of the excess.

They are on the leaves now even on the uppermost, so i better re-setup my tank fast.

 

Honestly I don't clean my substrate....I keep a ton of MTS in my tanks and am only using pool sand or black diamond sand at the moment. I will occasionally poke around in the sand with a piece of pvc but that is rare.

What substrate are you using? I ask because it is common for silica sand to cause brown algae for a period of time...an easy solution to that is to filter out the silicates which make it to the water column. Some media like SeaGel for the first month or two usually takes care of it. Some fish also love to eat diatoms....livebearers, barbs, and otos are some of the best.

 

ADA amazonia (this is not causing the problem), I have some 15% of silica sand (culprit) and 10 medium sized rocks (another culprit) hand picked at my surrounding which has sand or soil on their surface. So my rocks and that sand is causing silica levels to rise. First brown things started on sand and rocks then after 1 week it spread through ADA soil. Thank you pointing at my problem. I didn't get what is MTS ..snails ?

 

Is it a newly setup tank? Brown diatom algae is pretty normal while tanks are cycling and usually clears up on its own before the nitrification cycle is complete. If its a new tank (2 to 4 weeks or so), just cut back your photoperiod and ride it out. Drying the substrate means you have to go through it twice

 

Thank your for your reply, I am resetuping anyway I will remove everything from my tank.

 

You're welcome, just keep in mind that you'll probably see it again after setup. Since it seems to go away on its own, I usually choose to not spend much time or money trying to treat it. Water changes and some filter medias can speed up the process though. SeaGel, like @MCHRKiller mentioned is good

And MTS = Malaysian Trumpet Snails. Small snails that sift through the substrate and break it up

 

ADA substrate often causes ammonia spikes in new tanks...so it could be causing the issue through the nitrogen cycle instead of silicates. Brown algae is just part of new setups or tanks with sand....it is easy to manage and honestly not worth the effort to remove. Lots of fish like to eat it, MTS(malaysian trumpet snails as previously indicated) eat it and lots of media options to remove the silicates. Getting your plant load up also helps get rid of it faster.