Algee on sand

Diatoms, make sure you have sufficient flow, and wait it out. Assuming this is a new tank and recently/currently going through a cycle? Diatoms are one of the first things you'll see pop up in the tank after getting it all going. Nothing to worry about unless your tank has been up for awhile and already pasted this point, then I would recommend checking/controling phosphate/nitrate levels.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10127857#post10127857 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by papagimp
Diatoms, make sure you have sufficient flow, and wait it out. Assuming this is a new tank and recently/currently going through a cycle? Diatoms are one of the first things you'll see pop up in the tank after getting it all going. Nothing to worry about unless your tank has been up for awhile and already pasted this point, then I would recommend checking/controling phosphate/nitrate levels.
Click to expand...

This is the week number 12.
Do you thing is that the reason?

Thanks.
 
3 Months should be past this point, but that would also depend on how quickly the cycle completed. Did you have an early outbreak of this brown diatoms on the sand/rockwork or is this the first time you've seen em? If it's the first time, than I would simply wait it out, the diatoms will exhasut there food sources and be replaced with other types of nuisance algae soon after, such as hair algae, cynobacteria, bryopsis, stuff like that. All perfectly normal for newer tanks. Not to say that you couldn't run a phosban reactor or similar methods of controling nutrients in the system, this would speed this process up some. After the last bit of Hair algae and cyno left my system, all I have to worry about now is a little green film on the glass, enough that it requirs cleaning about once every two weeks. But the rocks and sand stay cleared (i attribute all that to my macro refugium)
 
Diatoms are feed by silica, usually brought in by the water source. If you aren't already, use RO/DI water with 0 TDS. The first thing I see as my DI resin start to go is diatoms. I agree, the tank is new and might just be going through the normal diatom/hair algae bloom, but to beat diatoms in the long term you need to limit the nutrients at the source. ;)
 
Question??????


What are you feeding???? Frozen foods???????

I had this problem AFTER my cylce as well.

I cut the hours on my day light down from 10hrs to 8hrs.
I left my antic on for the full 12hours.

and cut my feeding back from 1 full cube to about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cube....... I also starting feeding them in smaller portions , same amount just more often. Instead of big meal I give 3 smaller feeding spread out through out the day. This way less gets wasted, more gets consumed. Frozen foods are high in phosfates.

I changed the lighting for two weeks and changed the feeding for good. Two weeks later completely gone!
 
A diatom bloom is pretty std in almost all new tanks ... a small clean up crew will make short work of that. If you have multiple diatom blooms thats a good sign that you have silica in your water ... an RO/DI unit will help.
 
Thanks a lot for all your answers.

Yes it is the first time I have diatoms in my tank.
I am a heavy heavy feeder, froozen and dried food. I am gonna cut back some. I have a very fat tang.

About cleaning crow for the sand what would be a good choice?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10128084#post10128084 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pmartin727
Question??????


What are you feeding???? Frozen foods???????

I had this problem AFTER my cylce as well.

I cut the hours on my day light down from 10hrs to 8hrs.
I left my antic on for the full 12hours.

and cut my feeding back from 1 full cube to about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cube....... I also starting feeding them in smaller portions , same amount just more often. Instead of big meal I give 3 smaller feeding spread out through out the day. This way less gets wasted, more gets consumed. Frozen foods are high in phosfates.

I changed the lighting for two weeks and changed the feeding for good. Two weeks later completely gone!
Click to expand...

I have 1 Coralife with 65w 50/50 actinic/10,000k, one Coralife with 96w actinic/10,000k, one 40w T8 8,000k and one actinic 40w coralife.

What would be a good timing for this lights?
I have the 96w 10,000k and the T8 40w 8,000k on 8 hours period.
 
I am different than most.......... so far this is what I do

I work from 6am to 6pm so I dont get home until 630 7 pm everynight. That being said I have my lighting set to my time at home. As thats is all I enjoy (Staring at the tank)

I have 2 96W/10,000K Day.
and 2 96W/ 03 Actinic.

My 2 96W/ 03 Actinic comes on at 12noon.
My 2 96w/10,000K comes on at 1pm.

My 2 96W/ 03 Actinic goes off at midnight.
My 2 96w/10,000K goes off at 1030pm.

And my moon light comes on at midnight and goes off at 10am.

This makes coming home from work a joy. As evrything is out and in full bloom by 630pm. I go to bed about midnight so I get to enjoy my tank for the whole night.
 
my tank is in a very lit room by sunlight, so should i follow the patern of the sun or can i still do it so the lights are on when im home more?
 
remember there really is never a black out time in the ocean.
Moon provides light.... That light does not make it in your room thus a need for a moon light.


If your room is well lit by sun I would say you could still change it
but do it slowly an hour a week.

Again all these situations would change depending on what corals you have as some need lots of light.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10128275#post10128275 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pmartin727
I am different than most.......... so far this is what I do

I work from 6am to 6pm so I dont get home until 630 7 pm everynight. That being said I have my lighting set to my time at home. As thats is all I enjoy (Staring at the tank)

I have 2 96W/10,000K Day.
and 2 96W/ 03 Actinic.

My 2 96W/ 03 Actinic comes on at 12noon.
My 2 96w/10,000K comes on at 1pm.

My 2 96W/ 03 Actinic goes off at midnight.
My 2 96w/10,000K goes off at 1030pm.

And my moon light comes on at midnight and goes off at 10am.

This makes coming home from work a joy. As evrything is out and in full bloom by 630pm. I go to bed about midnight so I get to enjoy my tank for the whole night.
Click to expand...

This is a very good idea, I have almost the same work time: 8am to 8pm.

I stiking with this timing.

Thanks.
 
Once I started using Tropic Marin salts my 3 year old tank went through a massive diatom bloom. Then after a changing to Coralife salt it went away. Turns out that the TM salt had elevated levels of silicate - which fuels diatom blooms.
 
what is the impotance of actinic light?
Click to expand...



This site might help http://www.marineland.com/science/articles/31Lighting.asp

Actinic lights provide a concentrated light wavelength that promotes photosynthesis. If only actinic lamps are used, however, the water color in the tank will be very blue which is not visually appealing and the light is not intensive enough for the other processes of the aquarium inhabitants. Therefore a reef tank should have a combination of one actinic lamp and one or two daylight lamps for each 30 gallons of water. The daylight lamp can be either a metal halide bulb or daylight fluorescent lamp (preferably HO or VHO). The color temperature of the bulb or lamp should be 5,000 to 6,000 ¡K.

The other popular type of reef system is to combine metal halide lamps with the fluorescent lamps discussed above. Figure on one metal halide per 25 gallons of water for a really successful reef tank.
 
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