Fish Tank Help. Brown gunk forming on aquarium walls and gravel.?

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Duane

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We got a new 10 gallon fish tank for my daughter a couple months ago. We have only added a few small fish, and one live plant. While we seemed to be doing okay at first, we have had brown gunk (algae?) forming on the walls, gravel, fake plants, etc for the last few weeks. We have done a couple of 40-50% water changes about 2 weeks apart, but the gunk has continued to come back. We have tried several different additives recommended by the pet store and these do not seem to be working either. I am afraid to add more than one of the additives at a time however. Any suggestions on what to try, what to add, and how many things I can add in a given time period? Thanks.
 
get apple snails or commonly sold as mystery snails. or you can get oto cats or this pleco something that suck on the walls. some types of shrimp eat algae as well. cut down on lighting and feed less or don't feed for 3 days your fish won't mind. your only last resort is to use algae control chemicals but they kill shrimps and snails.
 
you cant stop algea growth no matter what anyone says, the best thing you can do is buy an algea eater fish, i would STRONGLY advise an otocinclus, as i have a 10 Gal and 4 of these and i had a seriouse algea prob;em and now i haven't seen a speck of it, plus they only grow to about 2.4 Inches so they dont get massive
 
This is typical of new tanks. Just give it some time, speed your water changes to 30% a week and if the tank is lit perhaps cut down slightly on the amount of available light. It will fade off after awhile without any extra help.
 
No need to worry as it sounds like diatoms which is quite common in new tanks. I would suggest to stop using any products to rid of it because this may do more harm than good to your water chemistry.

Diatoms do not arise from too much light, but because of high nutrients and phosphorus in the water. Try to cut down on feeding the fish for a few weeks and only allow them 5 minutes to eat. After that time, gravel vac to get any leftovers. Water changes are good any way so keep up on that, though I would suggest only 25% once or twice a week.

Eventually, the diatoms will go away. It may look ugly, but it will come back if you keep trying to rid of it. It doesn't harm the fish so they will be fine if all other water parameters are in check.
 
this is brown algae, its almost inevitable. i would not recomend adding additives to a fishtank unless it is a last resort (besides plant nutrients and dechlorinator). some these additives have chemicals that can be harmful to fish, whatever the pet store tells you. the best thing to do is buy a good algae scraper and keep it at bay. you can also buy a algae cleaning fish such as otocinlus, siamese and golden algae eaters, and corydoras.
 
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