Very dirty aquarium??

[SonofaGun]

I have had fish in my 20 gallon aquarium for about 3 weeks now, with a fishless cycle done before. My aquarium is heavily planted, and right now I have 1 pygmy cory, 2 longfin leopard danios and 2 gold zebra danios. The filter I have, from the Elite line, is, I believe, rated for 30 gal.

However, in the last several days, I have noticed beginning growth of brown algae on the glass, and the water itself seems very dirty (not bacterial bloom, but small floating particles.) I do 20% water changes once a week, I am very careful about overfeeding and remove any uneaten food. I switch between flakes, mysis shrimp, and blood worms, as well, dropping a bottom-feeder pellet down for the cory. Now my plants seem to be dying, the leaves are getting large brown spots on them and falling off the plant (I remove them as soon as I have noticed they have separated from the stalk).

I am looking for some help, I'm at a loss of what to do. I am thinking about maybe getting several standard-sized cories to help with cleanup, as well as 3-4 otos. Should I do water changes more frequently? Or should I remove a larger portion of water when I do them? Is something perhaps wrong with my filter? I rinsed the filter media in tank water when I first noticed the tank becoming dirty, and it was a very muddy-brown colour, could this be a problem?

Thanks in advance, I really love my tank and want to get it looking its best again.

[OrangeCones]

What lighting do you have over the tank (type of light and watts)?

What you are describing sounds like diatoms which is very common in newer aquariums, and should resolve itself. Otos love it. But the dying plant leaves are not normal at all. What plants do you have? Is it a 20high (base 24x12) or 20long (base 30x12) aquarium?

[sphenta]

That is normal with new tanks. Happened to all my tanks. Even the tanks I set up by using filter media and gravel from other tanks. Last about a month and is a pain. But this to shall past. It lets me know your tank is in the right direction.
Tina

[sphenta]

Otos won't eat brown algae

[OrangeCones]

Otos won't eat brown algae

Every oto I have eats diatoms. Not sure what your experience has been.

[sphenta]

If they did eat it, I couldn't tell. Now the green algae. You can tell they eat that big time.

[Newman]

My experience is then similar to Cones'...
my otos went for all my brown algae diatoms first when they hit the water in my tank. they ate it all in about 2 days and then have resorted to the green algae...

[OrangeCones]

Yea, sphenta must have had odd otos indeed! Otos are notorious for eating diatoms.

[Newman]

I know what she's reffering to though. on most oto info sites, it says that otos main diet is soft green algae. which is very true. mine have lived on it for 3 months now.

[OrangeCones]

They definately love the soft green too. I always throw a group of 5 into any 'new' aquarium about a week after planting to clean diatoms up before returning them to their normal tank. They always go back nice and FAT too, before getting busy on any green algae on the back wall (grown there just for them with extra sunlight)!