What is this stuff?

[bhath19]

I was wondering what this stuff is, it's brown in color.

 

[xxmoorishmanxx]

Diatoms

 

[bhath19]

Diatoms

I have one oto, should he be able to take care of it?

 

[Mofo2713]

how big is your tank?

 

[bhath19]

how big is your tank?

It's a 5 gallon tank

 

[Mofo2713]

You might want to perform a good vaccum of your gravel and maybe even take the brown ones out and scrub it with a pad. How often are you feeding your fish and what amount. This is probbaly due to overfeeding.

 

[Menagerie]

What fish are in the tank, how many and how often do you feed? Last Q--how often do you do PWC while vacuuming the gravel?

 

[smallfry]

Leave the brown stuff if you have an oto....he'll eat it.

 

[madasafish]

Though the advice above is all good, it sort of makes this sounds like an exceptional occurrence. It's not! Don't worry. Brown "algae" occurs in most new tanks unless certain nutrient balances are just right. Unfortunately, it is the sort of thing that can plague a tank for a long time, too.

Keep your water changes weekly, and your bioload (# of inches of fish in the tank) low, and scrub away once a week at the stuff. It should start to decrease over time.