Ewwww yuck!!!! Help!

[luv_my_grlz]

Hi All,

What brings me here is what I found when I got to work this morning. My eclipse planted tank is about 3 weeks old. When I left on Friday, all was well. Today, I've got these brown spots everywhere, especially noticeable on the acrylic and my pebbles, though it is on the plants also. Rubs off with minor effort.

I'm using Flourish nutrients and a DIY CO2 reactor. 1 fish and 2 dwarf frogs in the tank.

Can you help me figure out what this is and what I need to do about it?

Also, I like to use a bit of conditioning salt in my water, so I assume that snails would not survive for me?

Sorry for the blurry pics, but hopefully you can get the idea from them.

Thanks for any help!

 

[jcardona1]

looks like an algae bloom. is the tank next to a window? how long does the light stay on? if you reduce the amount of light the tank gets, the problem will go away in a few days...

 

[frasertheking]

since the tank is new i would say it is just part of it cycling give it a few weeks and if it does not improve uping the co2 helped me.

 

[chesterthehero]

i believe those are diatoms. you can help get rid of them by doing regular water changes to ensure that the extra nutrients in your tank are removed. otos will help a little, but they add to the bioload of your tank. just rub the spots away and then do a water change. it takes time, but eventually, you will basically starve the diatoms away.

 

[Fordtrannyman]

That is Diatoms as chesterthehero stated. You don't mention the size of the tank. At any rate I'm sure it withhold a couple Oto's. Your Betta and frogs will be all right with them. I would discontinue the use of salt immediately as long as there are scaleless fish or amphibians in the tank. 50% water change 1-2 times a week until bio-filter gets established well, and even supplementing carbon source with Excel. Even a lack of water flow or turnover rate will contribute to Diatom buildup. Remember the smaller the tank, less room for error.

 

[ar0wan]

since the tank is new i would say it is just part of it cycling give it a few weeks and if it does not improve uping the co2 helped me.

saw this in my planted 40gal but completely disappeared on it's own once cycled. I also have seen this on my 120gal after doing an overly aggressive WC. Bad ar0wan!

 

[luv_my_grlz]

Thanks everyone for your help and ideas! Sounds like a concensus on the diatoms.

Unfortunately, it is a small 3 gallon desk aquarium, so I don't have the capacity to go adding much like otos. I did decide to try a snail to just see. And was able to clean the acrylic myself so it is not quite so unsightly.

It will be interesting to see how it goes.

Thanks again!

 

[cassharper]

Just let it be, they will die. 99.9% of the time when diatoms appear in a new tanks it is excess silicate levels (from the silicone used to seal to tank). People often blame it on some other nutrient level but this is perfectly normal. You can scrub them off if you like, they really don't hurt or help anything.

 

[WyldFya]

Just let it be, they will die. 99.9% of the time when diatoms appear in a new tanks it is excess silicate levels (from the silicone used to seal to tank). People often blame it on some other nutrient level but this is perfectly normal. You can scrub them off if you like, they really don't hurt or help anything.

The most likely cause is not silicone, as an eclipse system 3 doesn't have seams. The actual culprit here is the sand laying beneath the gravel. Sand often has silicates which feed brown algae (or diatom algae). The only way you will be rid of it is scrubbing, some small fish/invert eating it, or removing the sand and allowing the silicates to work there way out with water changes.

 

[luv_my_grlz]

Thanks again for all your help. Actually, that is Shultz Aquatic plant soil rather than sand (though it does rather look like course sand). But I appreciate everyone's encouragement that this will likely cycle on it's own.

On a good note, I'm seeing lots of new growth on my plants since I introduced the C02, so I'm happy!