What is this all over my betta tank

[freefour]

Hi all . I have a betta that finnaly after 4 days in his home started to eat pellets . He'll only eat the pellets and nothing else. Well had him for a while now and I have this brown film that forms on everything , truely evrything. The plants (although plastic) , pools on the rock bed , I mean everything. I have done 80% water changes and it's back within a couple of days . I have taken everything out and washed it only to still return . The tank I washed out when I recived it befor me it have been stored in a basement with everything in it for some time. I threw everything away but the tank ( it was nasty). I have it didn't start noticably untill I started using the pellet food . I pretty much hand feed him although sometimes a pellet or two will fall to the bottom. He won't eat anything else (bloodworms , flakes , etc... I did have a filter in with him but it cloged it up and i was changeing out filters about every 3 days or so . It is some form of algee I think , Will an algee eater live with a betta? Should I get a snail? Any suggestions?

[QTOFFER]

It's brown diatoms. Perfectly harmless and very common in new tanks. It will eventually go away on its own. At least it wipes off easily. The only creature that actually eats the stuff is otocinclus catfish. What size tank do you have?

[freefour]

5 gallon

[Sprite42]

Diatom algae usually appears toward the end of the cycling process. Looks unsightly, but harmless!

[mollielover]

I've had ramshorn snails eat the stuff.

[DepotFish]

You are doing more harm than good by switching filters and everything so often. You are taking out all the good bacteria. Don't worry about the diatoms.

[QTOFFER]

You could fit one oto cat in the 5 gal betta tank. The betta will ignore him. Just be aware that you will have to start feeding the oto sinking algae wafers when the diatoms are all gone.

I agree with the comment about your changing filters so often. So long as there is water flow going through it, the cartridge is doing its job. Instead of changing cartridges, I just rinse mine out in tank water every so often.