Brown dust in aquarium?

[Jdh]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if someone could identify this brown dust in my aquarium, and give me some advice on how to remove it? I have had traces it since this aquarium has been up (~1 year), but it is especially visible now that the tank has been cleaned up. It doesn't seem to be harming the fish's health but it's very unsightly (also in the first picture is an algea eater I was recently gifted. Will he eat it?):

Here's another small algea bloom on the side of the tank. Will the algea eater eat it?

Thanks!
Josh

 

[DA fisherman]

The first two pics look like diatoms ...... But that last one is green algae.... Algae eaters would eat "SOME" of it but it won't cure the problem....
How long do you keep the lights on????
How much do you feed????
Hows your water changes????

 

[Jdh]

Lights are on 13-14 hours a day, feeding is about two pinches of food twice a day, and water changes are weekly (10 gal tank, by the way).

 

[DA fisherman]

Lights are on 13-14 hours a day, feeding is about two pinches of food twice a day, and water changes are weekly (10 gal tank, by the way).

Well jesus the lights are on just wayyyy to long.... Even if you have a planted tank, that's to much hours..... I have a saltwater tank with corals,anemones and I only keep the lights on 6hrs and 5hrs on weekend to simulate a short cloudy day.
L

 

[Jdh]

So will having the lights on less make them go away? I also read they're caused by silicates in the water, but I'm not really sure how to fix that.

Edit: Also, if I were to take all of the gravel out, rinse it out, and put it back in to get rid of all the current dust, would that hurt the bacteria in it/restart the nitrogen cycle?