Brown Stuff On Substrate

[sacramonel]

This is a really stupid question, and one I think I should know because I've been doing this for a couple years now. What is the brown stuff that accumulates on the bottom of my tank? Could it be detrious? There is a lot of it.

 

[seffieuk]

diatoms? have you got a good cuc?

Seffie x

 

[sacramonel]

I do have a CUC but I should probably add 20-30 more hermits. Maybe even a brittle star.

 

[Trod]

I had a lot of brown stuff at the front of my tank in the beginning, looked awfull, I added about 10 Nassarius snails and they seemed to do the job nicely after a couple of weeks it was all gone

 

[sacramonel]

After doing some extensive research today (all day in fact) I have come to the conclusion that yes I am having a Diatom bloom. I found this strange as I never had this before and my tank is about 2 1/2 years old. I now need to find the cause of this. I know silicates have something to do with it. I will have to find out how to get rid of it.

 

[Trod]

found this http/www.netpets.org/fish/reference/saltref/diatoms.html any help ??