Plant Quality Issues

It sounds to me like diatom algae. Diatoms are eukariotic single celled
algaes that thrive in silicate rich water. It's a brown algae that looks
like dust or rust and covers anything and everything as it grows. If you are
using rain water for your tanks then the silicates aren't coming from your
water. It's probably because you used silica sand as your substrate instead
of quartzite sand, which has no silicates. You have two options, you can
introduce more janitors to help you which will eat it, or you can break down
the tank and re-do the substrate. The second option is a huge pain but may
be the only way to eliminate diatom algaes from this setup.

The best janitors that I know of for diatom outbreaks in freshwater tanks
are olive nerite snails. Olive nerites are actually a brackish water species
of snail that can survive in freshwater. The advantages they have over other
snails. They don't usually eat green plants (just algaes) unless those
plants have very sensitive or soft leaf structures (ex: Cabomba, Ambula,
etc.). They will however graze diatoms and other algaes off of plant leaves
without harming them. They require brackish water to reproduce, so if you
have them in fresh water, their eggs never mature and develop into baby
snails. This keeps their populations in check. They're tough as nails and
can survive temperatures from 50f to 100f.

They're a small snail, for a 55 gallon tank i'd suggest about a dozen or so.
If you have trouble locating them, surf over to www.franksaquarium.com.
Frank usually has them in stock. I love them, and have them in just about
every tank I have.

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