Something different what is it?

[Lee77]

Hey all, I'm getting this brown fur like algae on rocks, the glass and any other surface has a brown powdery covering. Anyone know what it is? Or have had it before ? How to get rid?
350l American chiclid tank
sand substrate
No plants,co2 or ferts.
2 pieces of red moor wood
All water prams good.
Also running Szat clear water media in external filter.
I understand this is a planted tank forum and this isn't a planted tank, but I've had some great advice off here of which I've put into practice and having good results!
I've read that it could be the silica coming out of the sand?
On that basis I've increased my lighting period to 8 hours ( again it's what I've read) hoping that it would shift it to no avail
Hope someone can shed some light?

Thankyou Lee.

 

[Barbara Turner]

Increasing the lighting is the oposite thing you want to do. With no plants I would be cutting it right back to 1 or 2 hours a day.

Also lots of scrubbing followed by big water changes 50% + twice a week..
Any rocks that come out can be bleached and boiled.

 

[Petra R]

Cyanobacteria ?

If it was a marine tank I'd say that's what it is, and it looks like it....
(NOT an expert!)

 

[kadoxu]

A tank with no plants means you have to manually clean algae once it starts to annoy you, I don't believe there's a way around it.
Increasing the light period will only make it worse and a bit faster.
You can add snails and/or shrimp to help you out a bit, but they won't do miracles.

Even aquascape "masters" need to remove algae from their rocks from time to time, and they have plants to help them reduce the amount of times they need to do it.

What may help reduce the need to remove algae regularly:
Reduce the light as much as possible.
Add snails, shrimp, or algae eating fish.
Add floating plants
Add fast growing plants

 

[zozo]

Probably it's a mix from diatoms and aufwuchs a mix of algae and bacterial biofilm, i have it each summer in the garden tubs on the rocks in it or even the side of the tubs get covered with it. In my case, because it gets full blast day light after a few months it's developed into a few mm thick layer a can scratch off and remove sheets of it with a spatula. But i don't. Also have a little aqaurium in the garden and the cobbles in it have it too, originaly the pebbles are black with white vains, but this is not vissible anymore they are completely covered with aufwuchs in multicolor brown green black camouflage.

I actualy like it, once the rock is completely covered and it doesn't show that contrast anymore of beeing a dirty rock, than it doesn't look bad at all.
But that's a mater of taste i guess, or maybe the panic feeling of knowing it's algae. But it can't hurt, depending what critters live next to it, it can provide a lot of food.

 

[rebel]

Looks to be filamentous diatoms .Dramatically increasing light is a possible solution . Otherwise peroxide also helps .Surely you can just siphon it out during water changes??

Having no plants makes experiments easy!