Brown... something in filters, diatoms?

[Pylor]

My sand, glass, and also my filters all have something brown growing on them. The sand is just a spot here or there, it's not all the sand, and the glass has very little. I'm fairly certain this is some sort of diatom growth as the tank is about a month old. Now my question is: Do diatoms get in filters? I'm asking because I took my clogged fluval C4 foam pad and squeezed it out a few times in a 5 gallon bucket of tank water and the water turned dark. Here's what it looks like when the "stuff" settled in the bottom of the bucket:

imgur: the simple image sharer


I have an RODI unit that I use for water which I mix with seachem equalibrium and seachem acid/alkaline buffer

Anyone know what this might be?

 

[Gillie]

The stuff in the bucket is detritus

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[Pylor]

From what is what I'm curious about. This was all stuff caught in my filter. The tank never had any plants (aside from silk plants) and rocks/sand. The rocks were re-used from my tank when it was setup 8 years ago (I boiled them for 10 minutes each before I read about rocks exploding when people did that). I'm just not sure what could have generated all of that, the tank was devoid of all sizable life and that foam pad was brand new.

 

[trennamw]

I do get diatoms in filters yes. I don't think they grow there but they end up there. Since that's the only life in your tank that's what I'd bet on.

Once your tank is more mature, Otocinclus from a good source are diatom eating machines. They're known for being delicate but when I got 4 from a really good LFS, put them in a tank that was 1 month post-cycle and partially stocked, they cleared the diatoms overnight and have stayed happy and healthy.