Diatom Bloom? Brown Algae? Not Sure

[Snowman70]

Hey everyone, there is another thread on here about this same issue. I am attaching photos so you can see the bloom. This started a week and a half ago. I have a 45 gallon cube, nitrites spiked terribly, ammonia is at 0 and nitrates are starting to climb and as of yesterday it was at 20 ppm.

I use rodi water to top off, I have a skimmer on 24hrs and a filter, As of today I changed the lighting time from 12 hrs on to 5 hrs on. I understand from reading on here that this is normal correct? Now is it normal for the nitrites to spike? the spike happened almost as soon as the algae bloom started. SO this has been happening for about a week and a half now. I feed the fish every other day.

Any thought and suggestions? Is this something I have to wait out. if it is diatoms then i should worry right, it will eventually eat all the silicates and fade away. My tank doesn't stink or anything and the water is still clear. Just not sure what to do , if anything should be done at all. Let me know.

 

[mcgyvr]

Totally normal start of the "ugly stages"..
I see diatoms for sure and some green film algae starting..

The ugly stages are typically diatoms then green hair/film algae then even cyanobacteria.. Usually in that order..

And as long as you maintain the tank properly they will all pass with time and should be accepted as normal and tolerated..

 

[Snowman70]

ok cool, yeah this crap is spreading like wild fire. I did clear off the algae off the walls of my tank yesterday. Thank you

 

[dtapke]

lol i just started up a tank i used to have 10 years ago and remembered all of this thankfully. was doing 25-50% changes daily and still had a crazy bloom but not too bad. It's kinda fun when the algae starts producing little air bubbles and it sparkles

let it ride. keep doing water changes, keep scrubbing that glass. that way you can at least look at your algae covered rock!

 

[AlSimmons]

Check this out.

https://www.reefcleaners.org/nuisance-algae-id-guide

HTH.

 

[Snowman70]

Check this out.

https://www.reefcleaners.org/nuisance-algae-id-guide

HTH.

This is helpful thank you!

 

[Snowman70]

Now, could this cause the nitrites to spike the way they are?

 

[AlSimmons]

Check this out.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php