# Dust on plant's leafs



## QuantumX (Sep 27, 2007)

I notice dust on the leaf of my plants. Where is this dust coming from?


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## isenblatter (Jul 25, 2008)

Perhaps some of your substrate has been disturbed and has started to flow around the tank and has settled on the leaves.


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## QuantumX (Sep 27, 2007)

I clean the leaf and it always coming back; it's kind of sticky.


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## crystalview (Mar 9, 2008)

What color is it? Could it be diatoms?
I know my Discus blow at the gravel when they hunt for food and it can get on the leaves, but it's not sticky.



QuantumX said:


> I clean the leaf and it always coming back; it's kind of sticky.


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## QuantumX (Sep 27, 2007)

It's brown in color


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## crystalview (Mar 9, 2008)

Sounds like diatoms does it look like this? Its a bad pic but it is on the rock and the plant. It usually pops up as new tank syndrome. In my case I changed my lighting and had few plants.
Oto's love the stuff. I just went and put 3 in my tank. Other ways to treat are keeping up on your nutrients, reduce photo period, Do a black out for 3days. Complete Black. Fish will be fine. Others people use 2 to 3x overdose of Seachem Excel. In search type in Diatoms and Excel. You can find out more. 
I just put in a lot of plants, I only use Seachems ferts for now. I will switch to dry ferts and excel soon, it's cheaper. I don't want to use CO2. If you have it I have read that adjustments will help algae. Someone else will have to tell you about it. I will probably have to either raise my light up above my tank or get a lower wattage. 











QuantumX said:


> It's brown in color


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## QuantumX (Sep 27, 2007)

Yes that's the same stuff on my plants but my doesn't look that bad yet.


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## Rusalka (Jun 11, 2008)

If you have an El Natural with soil underlay I would not add fertilizers as diatoms are usually the result of too many nutrients in the water column of a new set-up. I would instead put in some plants that are fast growers. I'd recommend some floating plants. What ever is available - duckweed, water lettuce or whatever else or LFS may have. In general increasing the amount of plants in your tank will help keep things under control. Luckily diatoms will often go away on their own as your plants grow. 

If after a week or so you don't see any improvement a water change may help flush out some of the excess nutrients and you could reduce either the intensity or duration of your lighting. For an algae eating critter I'd recommend an olive nerite snail. They are very low maintenance, low profile, and will eat almost all kinds of algae. All the best!


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## QuantumX (Sep 27, 2007)

Yes, my aquarium is al natural. So is that Seachem excel really good?


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## chagovatoloco (Nov 17, 2007)

I this is an el natural tank you should not be adding any ferts.


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## QuantumX (Sep 27, 2007)

Last week I added some anacharis. where can I buy duckweed?


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## crystalview (Mar 9, 2008)

Oops I did not compute that this is an el natural tank. So time will be your best friend along with fast growing plants. You will need time to get the balance of fish waste for the nutrients to be available.


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## QuantumX (Sep 27, 2007)

I started this 20g tank about 2 months ago.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

You have an algae problem brought on by a temporary excess of nutrients. This sometimes happens in new NPTs. If it is severe, then we'll need more tank details. If it isn't severe, then a little tinkering may solve the problem. A few suggestions to try....remove algae-infested leaves, change water, add charcoal to the filter, add snails and/or algae eating fish, or buy floating plants. 

Sometimes NPTs need a little help the first few months. If some of your plants are doing well, then there's hope.


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## QuantumX (Sep 27, 2007)

I don't think it is that severe, here are some pictures






























This is a 20g tank, for lighting I'm using 25w day light compact fluorescent 25w high wattage spiral lamp
last night I added 4 otos. My filter is for 20g should I get bigger one.


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## zer0zax (Mar 25, 2007)

That white/green variegated plant is not aquatic and will die. I had one that grew big in a paludarium, but all of the submerged leaves rotted. Be careful when purchasing plants from the 'big box' pet stores, a lot of the plants being sold are house plants.


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## gravy9 (Aug 28, 2008)

Hi,

I have the same issue as QuantumX also but I'm using Flourite as the substrate. I'll open a separate thread for this.

regards,
Ravi


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## QuantumX (Sep 27, 2007)

I thank everybody for their replies and infos.


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## kkaso783 (Sep 25, 2008)

I have the same problem with the dust on our plant's leaves. I use flourite and believe it is from that. I am going to probably get some snails maybe this will help? Does dust affect plants from growing?


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## QuantumX (Sep 27, 2007)

Some plant are growing faster than others, the Cabombas are growing very fast.


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## QuantumX (Sep 27, 2007)

Hey my tank is finding its balance, the brown algae is going away and everything is growing. not after making some changes. I removed all the non aquatic plants and I added more plants. 

Thanks to everybody and specially to Diana


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## QuantumX (Sep 27, 2007)

Here is my aquarium after 1 month and changes...


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