What is this alge or what? Slime light brown/grey

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NoodleCats

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It looks like biofilm. It occasionally happens on plastic materials, but more common on organic materials.

Same time, there is some diatom algae mixed in as well, as seen as the fine coating of brown dust on it.

Being in the filter flow, it likely traps a lot of organic material which would speed up some growth of algae, biofilm, and diatoms.


How new is the tank setup? How often do you water change? How long are the lights on?
 

Work n’ Grind

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Lights on way too much 12 + hrs, tank is about four months old, I test weekly have done nothing but top offs for about a month maybe six weeks.
my substrate is filthy but I don’t feed my real plants macro nutrients
 

NoodleCats

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At 4 months old, diatoms are very normal those should settle down overtime.


I would do full on water changes and gravel vacuum every week to remove excess organic matter from the substrate, and excess bacteria growth as well.

And reduce your lights to 6 hours a day.

Basically limit the excess organics available to the algae, limit the light period (6 hours is fine for the plants, but not enough for algae to really get a hold with), and you should see it reducing with maintenance.
 
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Work n’ Grind

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Tank is

29 gallon

gh 100~
Kh180~
ph 7.8-8.0~
temp 72-74~
No nitrates or nitrites

Six molly
Three mystery snails
Six blue bolt shrimp
5 “ghost” shrimp
Possibly too many plants
 

TetraFreak

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An option for a good cleanup crew would be to add a small school of otocinclus. they're great and will even eat the algae on the plants.

-TF
 
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