tank bacteria

Question
Hi,
I jsut set up my 10Gallon tank about 2 weeks ago, and added 2 angel fish 1 week ago.  The fish seem to be fine and healthy (well, except one is forning a bit of red around his eye), but my tank walls have a funny growth.  If you look very carefully, the inside walls have, what appears to be tiny little 'dust-bunnies' all over it.  They sort of flap around in the current of the water, but they dont move.  I have looked on the fish and dont see any there.  Is there a water treatment I could use?  have tried scraping off the 'dust' to let the filter suck it up, but i think they find the wall again before they find the filter.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

Answer
Hi Breanna,

This "dust" you see on the inside of the tank is actually bacteria, as you put in your subject.  When setting up a new tank, for the first month or so the water will go through all sorts of crazy cycles trying to get used to being confined and filtered.  It's probably already gone through its ammonia bloom (where the water gets all white and cloudy), so you may just be experiencing some bacteria floating around and clinging to the glass.

There are a couple things you can do for this.  The first is scraping it off with an acrylic algae scrubber (it's a little white pad you can buy at your local pet store) and rinsing it off in the sink.  You might also want to get a chemical called Cycle, which will introduce beneficial bacteria into your tank, or get a little tub of Bio-Zyme, which is more concentrated beneficial bacteria.  Either of these will cancel out any harmful bacteria that might be growing and get your tank healthier than it ever has been.

I hope this helps, let me know if there's anything else I can do for you!

-Lindsay