Brown stains on decorations

[Ima Newbie]

I have a newly cycled tank which I did with fish. My ammonia is at 0 ppm, Nitrites are at 0 ppm, and Nitrates are at about 20 ppm. I have hard water. I have brown stains on some of the decorations in my 55 gallon tank. Especially on the air stones. I have tried to take it out and wipe it off, but it is stained and wont come off. It is also on a plastic plant. It is more on one side of the tank than the other. What is this caused from. I do regular water changes and it is getting worse. I do know that my gravel needs cleaned. I have been putting it off a bit since my tank has just newly cycled, I dont want to disturb the bacteria. I also have a fine white bristle like growth on everything in the tank. I'm not sure what it is or how to get rid of it. I dont want to do anything to disrupt the bacteria. It took me so long to get it to cycle, I dont want to have to go through that again.
Please help!
Ima

 

[tstenback]

Is it a reddish brown? if so it could indicate iron content but that would be odd for it to be only on certain things. The way you describe it is like it only affects one side of the tank. Is that side of the tank exposed to direct sunlight? Is the filter outflow on that side of the tank? Anything else you can think of that would set one side of the tank apart from the other?

 

[Teelie]

IMO, diatoms or brown algae. Nothing serious, it should go away after a month or so though it's a real pain if you have live plants. It can be persistant with them.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Diatoms.

Best solution is to scrub it off if possible and increase the amount of light. Make sure you use fluorescent bulbs and that it's the proper intensity. Don't reky on algae eaters or plants because they won't get the job done right.

 

[Teelie]

No kidding. I have the worst problem with them in my planted tank.

 

[Ima Newbie]

Hi again,
I did take out my air stones and gave them a good scrub. I got alot of it off, but you can still see a bit of the stain. I also took out my fake plant and scrub it good. Most of it came off, but there are some spots that are there for good. My tank is not in any direct sunlight. The half that dosnt have it is the half that has the filter. I use floresnt bulbs and I have them on for about 12 hours a day, because it is in a dark part of the house.
Could it be cause from algae discs? On the package it says to remove any uneaten remains after 24 hours, but I never see any left. Could there be some left to rot that I miss? Whatever it is mainly attaches itself to the airstones.
My gravel is quite dirty too. I cleaned about a forth of it today. I'd like to find the reason for this because it is quite unattractive.
Thanks

 

[Teelie]

I doubt the algae pellets would cause algae growth like that, and certainly not the brown stuff. How long has it been set up? I'd say give it a month or two and it should go away on it's own.

 

[Ima Newbie]

I have had the tank for about 6 months. It has only been cycled for about a month. I made the mistake of overloading it before it cycled. This stuff almost looks like dark kool-aid stains. Its not fuzzy or slimy.

 

[luxum]

It sounds like diatoms, very common in a freshly cycled tank. It seems to be linked to the presence of silicates in a new tank, probably from the adhesive used at the tank joints. It should disappear on it's own in about 3 weeks, when the silicate concentration drops. If it persists past then you can try to set your tank lights to only be on for about 10 hours a day instead of 12 and see if that helps. Snails will clear it up real fast, although some people seem to really hate snails, i don't really understand why.

 

[loates123]

i have the same problem i have cold water fish my tank is about 6 weeks old.
i have brown slime in most places what can i do here to slove the problem as it does not look very nice

 

[Teelie]

Wait a few weeks, maybe a month and it should go away but in the meantime scrape as much of it off as you can and vacuum it up with a siphon so it won't cloud the tank or cause more problems.