Plants and dirt

Hey guys, I have a problem. I have had a 16 gallon dirted for like 3 or 4 weeks now and nothing seems to have gone right, first of all the water is cloudy and water changes are good for like 3 days and then the tank proggresivly gets more cloudy, I dont know if its extra nutrients or what

secondly there is brown algae on my plants leavs, will a team of amano shrimp do the work?

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Permalink Reply by Matt A. on November 10, 2011 at 6:43pm

Are you using sand for the cap or gravel?

Oto cats will eat the brown algae. I've got to get me a pair of those this weekend because I'm in almost the same boat as you are with the brown algae. You can rub it off the leaves gently when you do your water change. I've been changing 50% to 75% twice a week. I have to recomend a small army of snails. I have MTS and Red Ramshorn and some hichhiker snails that are really some work horses and a team of 7 red cherry shrimp.

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Permalink Reply by 2apes2gp667wr on November 10, 2011 at 7:55pm

Your tank is probably still cycling. It's a bacterial outbreak that is causing the cloudy water. Give it some time for the beneficial bacteria to get a foothold. It can last for quite a while. If you really can't take it, put a UV sterilizer in. The bacteria that cause the bloom are free floating while the beneficial bacteria that you want in the tank are stationary on things like substrate and filter media. So the the bad bacteria flow through the UV and are killed while the good kind never make it into the UV.

Brown algae are Diatoms and are also usually a new tank thing. High phosphates are usually the problem.

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Permalink Reply by Nick T. on November 10, 2011 at 7:59pm

Thanks guys! ill try and get some snails and possibly uv sterilizer

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Permalink Reply by J Tang on November 11, 2011 at 12:27am

How thick is your cap? And maybe you could use some duckweed.

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Permalink Reply by Matt A. on November 12, 2011 at 9:28pm

Try the oto's, I got two of em Thursday night and they have just about totally cleaned my tank. Only have a few smaller places left that need their work.

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Permalink Reply by Hmoobthor on November 13, 2011 at 1:59pm

amano shrimp don't eat brown algae. MTS snail and SAE will take care of that.

that is what they are doing for me atm.

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Permalink Reply by Nick T. on November 13, 2011 at 4:19pm

Thanks guys my caps fine, I bought 2 nerite snails. My main concern is the brown-ish water i Thought it was extra nutriens... would a sword work?

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Permalink Reply by Matt A. on November 13, 2011 at 7:01pm

The brownish water is from the potting soil. It will leach for awhile. Seems like I get about 3 days of clear water before mine starts to turn back to a brownish tint.