# Combating brown algae on live plants



## F3-RapalaAngler (Mar 17, 2016)

How do you do it? Hand cleaning each Leaf isn't really an option with how I'm planted and nerite snails tend to not be able to get onto the leaves because of their weight and I doubt otocinclus could help with how find the leaves are.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Brown dusty algae are usually diatoms. Diatoms "eat" silicates. Some tap water contains some silicates. A newly setup tank will have all new tap water, therefore a maximum of silicates in the tank. That encourages growth of diatoms, but before long they have cleared out much of the supply of silicates. Even 50% water changes don't replace all that has been used up. So, the shortage of food for the diatoms causes the colony to die back, eliminating much of the brown algae problem. (Until we once again replace nearly all of the water in the tank again.)

That is my opinion based on what I read about diatoms and widespread experience of many planted tank keepers.

I'm almost sure Amano Shrimp eat diatoms, based on when I tried them in my tank several years ago. My infestation of diatoms vanished in about 3 days after I added the shrimp.


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## F3-RapalaAngler (Mar 17, 2016)

Amano shrimp will eat diatoms off a plant like water sprite? 

I had no idea


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

When I had Amano shrimp I didn't have water sprite, so I can't say that they will clean off the diatoms there. I saw the biggest effect on the substrate.


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## F3-RapalaAngler (Mar 17, 2016)

I planned on 2 amano shrimp, however I've read sparkling gourami will kill shrimp


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## GreenCup (Feb 19, 2014)

I'am also facing this issue in a newly setup tank. Would not enough water flow cause this problem? I am only running a sponge filter at the moment. I have three nerite snails and only running my light cycle for 8 hours. The tank has maybe been setup for 6 weeks now.


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## Maryland Guppy (Dec 6, 2014)

Mollies and Platys are also good algae cleaners.
All of my tanks when new for at least 8 weeks suffer in some way from diatoms.
2nd stage is GSA for me, that's when I add 3 nerites per 20 gallons to keep glass and plants clean.


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## Wilderman204 (Mar 5, 2015)

Otocinclus catfish, great at cleaning plants, also fun to watch in a group


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## F3-RapalaAngler (Mar 17, 2016)

Well I picked up a pair of otocinclus today. Can they eat off something like water sprite?


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## cininohio (Jan 13, 2016)

My mollies are crazy cleaners.


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