"dirty" looking leaves

ARRRGGG!!! Did they show up this time?
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if these pics didn't show up again, I guess go to my profile and look under the photo album entitled "nothing".
 
bump
 
I had posted my own issue with brown leaves which was also around my bare bottom, my tubes, the heater, the glass - which I thought was brown algae bloom but have been told it is a diatom bloom. I don't have any BN's or otos so when I do my major w/c I scrub.

as for the plants, I just cleaned their leaves & lots of pruning - it is a pain. will see how long this lasts.

so during w/c I scrub everything I see it growing on. water is crystal clear but I know I will still get the growth back. I have also cut down the lighting time.

some day will get some BN's
 
The answer to removing algae from the live plants and from the glass and other ornaments and rocks you may have is: SNAILS. I have have a couple hundred of them in my 75 gall tank. They do an unbelievable job of keeping everything clean. I have live plants and I haven't had to clean the glass in this tank in 5 years. A few months ago, my Angels laid eggs on an Amazon Sword Plant leaf and to ensure the snails didn't eat the eggs, I removed just about every single one of them. The babies hatched and survived (so many in fact, that I had to give about 60 of them away to the local aquarium store), but without the snails, within about 3 weeks, the plant leaves and especially the glass was coated with algae growth. Not to worry, snails always leave egg packets around and within another 3-4 weeks, I had the tank filled with a supply of snails again, which subsequently did a great job of cleaning up the entire tank. Snails get a bad rap for eating live plant leaves, but in reality, they only eat dead and decaying leaves -- which should be yanked off the plant and discarded anyway.
Mike
 
MT gal, there isn't a "nothing" folder showing the diatoms that I see. I can't see diatoms in the Nov pics.

hmmm well, I don't know what to do about fixing it on your end. I can see the pictures I posted in the thread, and when I go into my profile I can clearly see the photo album entitled "nothing". so I apologize for whatever glitch is causing this.
 
probably a little more so on the older leaves.
 
I"m bumping this again to see if I can get some more input. I still don't know what to do. I've gotten answers from Oto's (Well, I've got oto's and they don't eat it) to bristlenose pleco, to snails.
Years ago, I had a snail outbreak in my tank. Don't want that again. I would put one or two larger snails in there if they will NOT mulitply by the thousands and if they took care of the brown algae on leaves problem.
Anyone?
 
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