see through, brown, and patchy

From your description, it sounds like diatoms.

It's very common in newer tanks. I had lots of it to start.

Otocinclus will happily eat and clean it up in no time. Lower lighting will not help, as diatoms can photosynthesize at lower light levels.

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/algae/diatoms2.shtml

well i have two 65 watt lights in a 55 gallon tank, not sure if that is considerd high lighting. anything else you can tell me?

Is this a new tank? I have only experienced this on a new setup and have found that patience is the best advice. Give it a week or two and once your tank is cycled and those water parameters balance out, it should disappear.

no its not a new tank, its been well established for about 4 or 5 months now. i am seeing a ton of growth on all the plants in the tank. so i figure it has to do with the tank being so healthy. i went and bought 5 otos, which are very, very tiny. they seem to be eating it off the walls of the tank and the plants. but my question is, if i cant even scratch it off with my scrubber, or even my finger nail, how will they eat it off?

Does it look like the pics of Diatom algae shown at this website?

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm

The first time I read your post, I missed the part about it being hard to rub off. I've never had diatom algae that didn't easily rub off so, now I'm not so sure about it being diatom...

zerocool said:

if i cant even scratch it off with my scrubber, or even my finger nail, how will they eat it off?

Click to expand...

I don't understand this, b/c I could easily get diatom algae off with a scrubber on the walls of my tank when I had it. I barely had to wipe at all. Maybe there are different types of diatoms? I never had a bad case - just had it on the bottom of the tank on the glass and the gravel very close to the glass.