Brown covered leaves?

[swifty]

I setup a new 20 gallon long tank about 10 days ago, and for the last 4-5 I've noticed some the old leaves are developing some brown algae like growth on them. The new leaves that have grown haven't shown it, but it's just on the old leaves. Also some of the leaves on my anacharis have a bit brown as well. Other than the brown substance all plants are showing significant growth.

I have 2 amazon swords, and 2 bunches of 4-6 stems of anacharis. I'm using a 17w Zoomed Ultrasun T8 bulb, and it is on a timer for 10 hours a day. I'm also using flourish tabs, placed 2 inches from the swords and about 1 inch deep.

Any thoughts/ideas?

 

[Karay]

Being a new tank it could be what I've heard as diatoms. I've had the same in some of my new tanks and it does go away.

 

[swifty]

How long does it normally take? I found a therad suggesting ottos or a pleco, but those are out of the question for me since I have 2 cichlids in my tank.

 

[Karay]

I've never actually paid attention to it as I've always let my snail do its job. I've heard a couple of weeks. Do your regular weekly water changing and they die off because the excess nutrients will be removed from the tank

 

[Hholly]

It can take months for diatoms to run their course. Nerite snails like to eat them. You can keep wiping it off of surfaces when you do water changes. I had them in one tank for months and it looked really bad. Then one day, voila, it was totally clear.

 

[Aqualady40]

I am just getting over the ugly diatom thing.....I added purgien and carbon and they dissipated rather quickly for me......and it will go away without adding that but I could not take it anymore it was taking over my bushy plants and driftwood that is over 2 feet (looked like someone had poured nestle quick chocolate powder on everything). Oh I also bought 2 bristlenose plecos at the same time so all was straightened out for my 55g in less than 2 days....good luck

 

[swifty]

I have a bag of purigen that was purchased in case my driftwood started to leech tannins, but it hasn't yet.

So purigen will help in controlling the diatoms? I'm using 2x sponge pads and a bio bag in my aquaclear right now, if I were to remove 1 of the sponges in exchange for the purigen would that cause a spike because of removing some beneficial bacteria?