brown cloudy water

[cappieBridget]

could this be a diatom algae bloom? I have quite a bit of brown on my ornaments and gravel. I feel like I have been cleaning bits of it daily. Is it floating in the water now from me trying to clean it? What do I do, just PWC until it's gone? My gravel is also neutral color and the same color gunk is coming up out of the gravel when vac'ing. You think it's dust from the gravel still? The tank is only 2 months old. Thanks!

 

[malkore]

tanks younger than 6 months always get diatom blooms.

I assume you clean the tank weekly? 25% water change with some gravel vac'ing? Rinse the filter sponge out?

if so, then don't worry, they'll pass.
Otocinclus will eat diatom 'algae' too.

 

[cappieBridget]

sorry, left out: 55 gallon, ammonia-0, nitrite-0, nitrates 10, ph-7.5, GH-3, temp.-86

yeah, I do 10% pwc weekly, 50% gravel vac'ing, rinse off the brown from the plants and deco. Should I be changing a larger portion of water? This is my 3rd tank but biggest one and thought bigger tanks require less cleaning than smaller ones because of water volume? Or are you suggesting 25% to get rid of the cloud? I have a candy stripe pleco but he's not even touching the brown, gotta head to the fish department then! Actually, wal-mart is the only place around that always has ottos. I was pretty sure it was diatoms because I use a white bucket to change the water and saw that it was light brown. oh well. More cleaning crew and pwc for me.

 

[GodOSoot]

Don't need to clean it off of the tank deco or glass unless it really bothers you but try doing more water changes, it is better to do one big one then several smaller ones as it dilutes it more. Although within reason though, don't want to upset you tank's balance.

Also any big light source near the tank? Algea is very opportunistic and will take advantage if conditions are right. The only thing I can think of is high potassium in your water but that is just a guess.

 

[cappieBridget]

after turning out the light and putting up my black background, I really could tell is was algae, it looked more green and the color in the bucket was questionable, so we are doing a blackout now. My tank is next to the window, sometimes that's the only place you can fit one, lol. I'm going to check it out tomorrow mornign and see how it's doing. I did notice after a water change, it seemed to get worse.