# Brown diatom algae.



## nemosreef (Oct 19, 2007)

I seem to all of the sudden be having alot of brown diatom algae in my established tank. the tank has been set up for 2 1/2 years. What could be the cause of this and how do I get rid of it?


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## kyle3 (May 26, 2005)

did you recently do a major trim or replace a lot of your filter media, or stir up the substrate. all of these things can cause a diatom bloom. 

best defense: add more oto's and do lots of big water changes and good CO2 levels always help

cheers-K


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

otos work pretty well. Try excel too.


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

I have a 10g, hardly any plants, that was setup for a year with basically very little gravel vac done on it. Never had any diatoms until I super cleaned the gravel. I removed all plants, driftwood, and critters, and then gravel vac'd all the water out about 4 times until the vac started to run clear. After that, I got really bad diatoms for a couple of months. Still had some another two months later. I finally tossed in a few nerites, which cleaned them up fast. I find they eat diatoms more readily and more thoroughly than any other algae.


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## nemosreef (Oct 19, 2007)

I use 3 times the recomended daily dose of excell now. I have quite a few ottos. I guess it wouldent hurt to add soem more. I did recently do a major clenup I had never really done any gravel vac before. I decided to do several big water changes and do alot of gravel vac like like cjp999 said he did. So that is probably my problem. I guess I am going to have to do what i can to keep it under controll and wait it out till it finally goes away. Thanks for the advice and replys.


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