HELP!! Brownish film everywhere - agh!

[avelazcooo]

Help fishlovers -- My 10 gallon tank has been up and running fine for nearly 3 months. It's in the shade, gets some indirect sunlight, but for the past 3-4 weeks we've noticed a rusty brownish film growing on the glass, ornaments and even the plastic plants. Is it algae? I've scrubbed with glass with an algae scrubber, even taken out the ornaments and plants and scrubbed them but it returns.
All water tests are normal and the fish seem just fine.
What to do??? How do we get our cheerful colors back?
Do I get an oto cat? I'd rather not use chemicals if they might affect the fish.
Thanks for your help!

4 harlequin rasboras
2 blue-spotted platys

[bkw1982]

sounds like diatoms, these show up usually in a new tank, and increasing light will help speed up the process of gettin rid of them. indirect light is not the best light for an anquarium will evenually cause other types of algae to show up. do u have anyother type of light over ur tank?

IME if it is diatoms it will eventually clear up, u just have to keep up with the cleanings. i would also move my tank out of the sunlight and think about gettin some hood lights, if u dont have any real plants u can get away with buyin a cheapo hood, or just not buy a hood, but i would really keep the tank out of the sun.

here is a link to plankgeek which kinda gives an overview the diff types of algae. maybe u can spot urs http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=9

[Marinemom]

Sound like ditoms. It is part of the natural process in the maturing of a tank usually in the first year. It is caused from the silca(sp) that leech out into the aquarium from the aquarium glass. Eventually it will go away on its own even if you do nothing about it. I know it tends to be unsightly so you can manually remove it in the mean time.

Marinemom