# diatoms how to get rid of it



## barbarossa4122 (Jan 16, 2010)

When I had diatoms I bought uv sterilizers and had them on only at night. It worked in my case.


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## jmowbray (Dec 20, 2009)

Oto cats love diatoms but once they are gone you have to supplement food for them.


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## LiveHumanSkeleton (Aug 1, 2010)

Just a suggestion, but you can try nerite snails. They're supposed to be really good a clearing diatoms.


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## helgymatt (Dec 7, 2007)

Oto cats and time will clear it up - it's a new tank thing.


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## fern09 (Aug 30, 2010)

do you think oto are safe with goldfish....

or would it go away after a while.....if so it might going to kill my plants as i see dark brown spots on my plants....


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## helgymatt (Dec 7, 2007)

Diatoms will not kill the plants. I would think Oto cats should be fine with goldfish depending on the size. I wouldn't recommend goldfish in a planted tank. 

I have nerites too and they keep plants and glass free of algae


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## wakewalking (Jan 18, 2010)

wait for the bacteria in your filter to mature or get a few otocinclus and they will be gone within a few days. goldfish are probably one of the dirtiest fish you can put in your tank. you might want to get some bottom feeding fish to clean up the mess they leave when feeding.


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## fern09 (Aug 30, 2010)

thank you all.

i'll give it a week or more ifnot i'll get octo.

so far today, i just thought to wipe with paper towel on the glass and it wiped out pretty good leaving most of the brown on the paper....

now i've mostly on the plants and i hope it will come back..

but would paper towel wiping will help


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## kevmo911 (Sep 24, 2010)

Every tank should have a handful of otocinclus. Little guys will clear up diatom algae quickly, and they're pretty good at clearing out dead algae once you kill it off with excel or some other anti-algal chem.


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## wobbler (Nov 4, 2010)

Just as a heads up on the otos. I had one in two in my tank cleaning up the algae and while they did a good job two were not enough.

I have 6 gold fish and one decided that the oto was going to be his snack for morning breakfast, I had to pull the oto out of his mouth which im sure was very painful for him as they have a little barb on their top fin.

So, if your goldfish are large you might want to be careful with otos esp if your goldfish are dummies like mine.


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