[bubblesgoup]

I set this 10 gallon up about a month ago. I have 2 13 watt cfl on it about 12" from the top of the tank. I use tap water with prime. I have play sand as a substrate, DIY co2, I don't think I over feed. What could be causing this. Should I be worried? I have to clean the glass almost every day and now it's starting to appear on the surface of the sand. I think it might be killing my dwarf hair grass. I haven't added any ferts yet. Please help!
Here are some details pics to give you a good idea of whats going on.

 

[taniner]

Looks like it's only diatoms. Very normal for your young tank. It will slowly go away in a few weeks or month. Keep changing your water weekly. You may want to add more plants to speed up the process.

 

[Higher Thinking]

Looks like a diatom for sure. It will come on strong and persist for a few weeks. Then it will leave as fast as it appeared. It feeds off the silicates in your tank and once they are used up, it will die down. Definitely an indication of an new tank and it will balance itself out.

You could go through the hassle of using a phosphate/silicate remover, but that won't exactly help any plant life you have in there.

 

[jasonpatterson]

This assumes that you don't have silicates in your water, of course. If you do, they will happily continue breeding pretty much forever.

 

[happi]

normal on new setups, it was go away own its own within next month or so. until then remove it with your hand.

 

[kamikazi]

what kind of rocks are those?

 

[150EH]

They look like something you see in a saltwater tank, but they don't look like they should be in the tank.

 

[kamikazi]

They look like something you see in a saltwater tank, but they don't look like they should be in the tank.

that's why I was asking

 

[bubblesgoup]

Thanks for the info. ill give it a month or so to see of this resides.
And I am not sure if I already have silicates in my tap. I'm assuming no since my other tanks are doing fine.

The lfs called them moon rocks. But I am also thinking they don't go so well in the "freshwater" theme of things.
I am heading to the nursery soon to pick out different ones.

 

[kamikazi]

look like they are made of concrete or are some sedimentary rock.

 

[bubblesgoup]

Yeah i'm not sure exactly what they are. All I know is they will be coming out.
Would I experience any kind of ammonia spike if I replace the rocks?

 

[bubblesgoup]

I think these look a little better.

 

[kamikazi]

those certainly look MUCH safer and better too

 

[bubblesgoup]

Thanks, I have a good feeling about these rocks. So far so good with the algae,
nothing new has popped up. This morning though I did notice that I have a good amount of direct sunlight that shines in the tank from about 8am till 11am. Could this be a cause of algae growth?

 

[kamikazi]

could be causing it yes, i has brown diatom algae in my 10 gallon tank for nearly a year and the tank was sitting in front of a window, then I got a couple ottos and they wiped it out in a couple weeks and it never came back after that.

 

[bubblesgoup]

I think if I added a couple of ottos that would be a little bit on the heavy side as far as bioload goes. I already have 7 neon tetras, 2 ghost shrimp, and 1 mystary snail.

Thanks a bunch for you help!

 

[Higher Thinking]

I think if I added a couple of ottos that would be a little bit on the heavy side as far as bioload goes. I already have 7 neon tetras, 2 ghost shrimp, and 1 mystary snail.

Thanks a bunch for you help!

I think you would be perfectly fine putting an otto or two in there. Depending on your filtration that tank could be quite capable of handling that. You mentioned that you have other tanks as well so you could always move it to another tank for a permanent home once it's job was done. I breed bnp plecos in a ten gallon tank with minimal filtration and at any time I could have 50 plus babies growing out with their parents as well. Water changes are certainly heavy on that tank, but you get the point.

 

[Couesfanatic]

awesome new rocks.

 

[bubblesgoup]

awesome new rocks.

Thank you! I like them to!

purchased a couple new Ottos today at the lfs. They are still adapting to the water after acclimation. just kind of sitting there not doing too much yet.
I have plenty of algea for them though. I am running a penguin 150 on this 10 gallon that should be enough filteration for them.

 

[bsmith]

Hi, nice to see another STL native in the forum!

You could go to petsmart/co And snag up some Otos to eat those diatoms up. But when they go away naturally or they eat it all they will need some supplimentsl feeding.

What fish store do you go to?

FYI, the petsmart @ 141 and manchester had $1 otos a week ago roughly.