Stubborn brown moss/mould/algae on orniments

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stew

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Sep 27, 2003
Messages
73
Location
BC, Canada
I have a healthy layer of nasty looking brown algae/moss on an orniment , I keep cleaning it and a day or 2 later its back in full force. Its most noticable right underneath the HOB filter stream so that much have somthing to do with it. My Tank consists of mostly mollies and they are usually really good at clean up but they wont touch this nasty stuff!

Any pointers on how to get rid of this?
 
What's your nitrogenous waste levels, especially nitrates? Also, how much light reaches the tank? Brown algae, aka diatoms, need a food source (could also be phosphates, from either the tap water or the fish food), and believe it or not, LOW light to really take off.

I found otocinclus catfish do a great job inhaling the stuff; atm you do have room for 2 or 3 (they do best in groups).
 
I totally second Alli on the otos! I was having such a ghastly brown algae problem. Got four otos, and overnight the tank was totally rid of all algae! Plus the otos are fun to watch.
 
Algae eating snails are good too. Ever since I got a couple for my 10 gallon to clean up the algae I am a believer in their abilities. :)
 
Nitrites are 0, Nitrates are only 5 mg/L the tank is recently cycled. The tank gets virtually no daylight as The tank is in the basment and I keep the curtains drawn all the time. If its not comming from the water could it be from excess feeding? As I mentioned before its really localized on one orniment that is directly under the outflow of the HOB filter... I dont get it, shouldn't the flter be catching this stuff? :)

Can ottos candle mildly salty water, my tank is optimized for mollies?

I'm off to clean the tank... again :)
 
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