diatom infestation

[Adam K]

every1 has been telling me the problem will fix on its own but its getting worse every day is there anything i can do to get rid of it once and for all or do i have 2 scrub the tank walls everyday

[chuckfriedrice]

All you can really do is scrub it ! Try to block any sunlight coming in ! I know in full marine you can get a cleaning crew turbos are good at diatom , but now sure about brackish water !

[Adam K]

well that sucks lol...is there any algae eating friend i can throw in there that will live in brackish?

[chuckfriedrice]

Ive never done brackish always Fw or Sw never in between ! Hmmmm!!!! Ive got 5 tanks going maybe more wouldnt hurt, LOL My wife would kill me ! lol

[briguy44]

IF you have a little extra room in your tank you can put in a few mollies. They tend to eat algae off the glass and decoration. Worked in my tank. Don't overstock your tank though to try it because it will cause even more problems later.

[Purifire]

I agree. One female Black Mexican Molly can eat a goodly amount of algae, just starve her of everything else and boom! -instinct takes over and she goes into herbivore mode. just make sure to give her something meaty once or twice a week after she gets the hang of faraging.

[Arny]

You should try getting a Sea hair. I've just got one to eat all my Hair Algea, maybe It'll feed on diatom to

[Pufferpunk]

Sea hares will not live in BW.
library/water-filtration/brownalgaediatoms/

[Adam K]

i have heard the mollies thing b4 but would getting a gobie or 2 be ok for the algae as well?

i will glady grab a molly or 2 but gobies IMO are more appealing...whatever 1 will work better is what i will go with

[Nuclear_Glitter]

It depends what else you have in the tank. Most gobies lay around part of the day and certain, (mostly all) puffers pick at them. Gobies are very pretty but you have to generally keep them with other peaceful, brackish water fish.

[Pufferpunk]

I've never seen a goby eat algae. Also, I've never seen mollies eat diatoms but they sure took care of my hair algae!

[RTR]

+1 to PP's comments.

[Adam K]

it would be with my F8 but my F8 is oddly friendly to other fish i had a guarami in there with him for 2 months and there was never a problem but i gave the guarami to my little sister

[Pufferpunk]

That's a good thing, since gouramis are FW fish & F8s do best in BW.

[Antagany]

Try nerite snails. They eat diatoms happily, and are actually brackish to marine snails. They do fine in freshwater too, which is how I know about this. Try and get a big one to discourage snacking on your algae eater. Luckily they are not expensive lol.

Also, you could try a siesta in lighting. Like, in the middle of the day, have 2 hours of darkness. I know that did wonders for my algae issue.