Diatoms? Cyano? Brown algae?

Squibege

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No bubbles so I'm not worried about Dinos...
When the tank was still going through the 'new' phase, I did get a bit of Cyano and some brown gunkys, but they all went through their cycle and I rode it out. For the past 3ish months though I can't seem to keep the sandbed from going gross! I've siphoned it out twice to try to control it and it's back within 3 days, thick by the time a week is up. I've tried lights out (helps a bit, but onlytemporary), increasing the flow, changing filtration (added a sock, put in an additional bag of ChemiPure Elite, upped the skimmer)... what the heck can I do to make this pass???


Tank is 90G plus 20G in the sump. Been up since Feb '16 so just shy of a year. I don't test much, but when I do Nitrates are always under 5 and phosphates are less than 0.25.

For flow I have two Jeabo power heads on 'wave' mode on opposite sides of the tank, plus the return that comes through the middle of the tank. Lighting is currently a ~6month old 2bulbT5 fixture that's in place while I save up for some LEDs to add.

CUC is currently minimal and beefing it up may help... I have scarlet hermits, nassarius snails, and trochus snails. I'm debating adding a sand-sifting star to help keep
The sandbed clean- but I figured I should identify what the issue was first


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Following along, I've had this problem for months, vacuuming and cleaning almost daily.


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I think those are diatoms after you sayd theres no bubbles.Cyano also makes bubbles thogh less than dynoflagelates.But it could also be cyano.There are manny different species of cyano ,somme brown ,somme red ,somme green blue-from where the cyano name derives, ETC.Corals look happy so i wouldnt worry a lot.
 
Ya everything is happy and growing... but I would like my tank to look clean lol.
At first I thought it was just another 'phase'... but it just won't budge!


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Tagging along too. Been fighting this also for the last few months. My tank has been set up for two years now. Run LED lighting, added more of a cleanup crew and changed my DI resin. Thinking maybe silicates in my water so I'm waiting for a silicate test kit. Changed my DI brand but won't use it unless I have to change again(read a few people were having some issues with it on line) Use GFO but changed that over to a aluminum based for now.
Seems I've made a small dent in my problem but way to early to see.
 
I see this hasn't gone far just thought I'd put my update in, after months of fighting this issue I'm starting to see other types of green algae growth in my tank showing that this phase of the tank is almost past. I think in my case my dryrock just took extremely long to cure in the tank.


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I'm having this problem also. How long did it take for your sand to get that bad? I mean after vacuuming it how long did it take to get that dark again?
 
Diatoms? Cyano? Brown algae?

I'm having this problem also. How long did it take for your sand to get that bad? I mean after vacuuming it how long did it take to get that dark again?



Bad by two to three days, thick like this in less than a week


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Update- I decided that since DOING something wasn't working, I would try leaving things alone to wait and see what happens.

Several weeks went by and it FINALLY started to let up. It didn't clear fully... but probably a good 80%. Mostly a dusting of brown now, rather than a thick carpet.

I vacuumed the sand the other week since it had been close to two months since I had touched it. Two days after I did, the brown flared right back up. Leads me to believe that it's nutrient source is from the sandbed.
I'm not sure if the best plan long-term will be to continue to leave the sand alone... or to continuously move it around so the gunk can't set in until it dies off [emoji53]


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Do you use Rodi with good filters? I was using an el cheapo ro unit, with no di. It seemed like after water changes my problem was worse. When my filters became exhausted I upgraded to a quality RODI and everything improved, including the brown nasties I was battling.
 
Do you use Rodi with good filters? I was using an el cheapo ro unit, with no di. It seemed like after water changes my problem was worse. When my filters became exhausted I upgraded to a quality RODI and everything improved, including the brown nasties I was battling.



I use just RO from a local store, but have the entire time. Maybe they need to change their filters [emoji13]


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It's more than likely cyano. If you can't take it anymore get chemicleanI would make this a last resort. A lot of people have had great success with chemiclean with little to no ill effects
 
Cyano can exist in many different colours. You need 20-30 times your tank volume in flow, and phosphates below 0.03ppm. cyano can live off very little. Sometimes you just need to wait. Sounds like it is going.
 
Cyano can exist in many different colours. You need 20-30 times your tank volume in flow, and phosphates below 0.03ppm. cyano can live off very little. Sometimes you just need to wait. Sounds like it is going.

I would wait it out as well. I am not 100% certain but there are claims that chemiclean is a antibiotic which will kill good and bad bacteria. Everything comes with a cost. I would increase water changes, skimming, change out GFO more regularly.
I have a little bit of the same stuff going on, but I am not stressing out because my tank is newer and it is very manageable. I am no where near putting chemiclean in my tank.
 
I'm with Indiana, wait it out. I've had tanks take a year to start showing signs of turning the corner of new tank syndrome, especially when starting with base rock, and not live rock. Also, don't forget you're testing for free nitrates and phosphates, you aren't seeing what the algae and cyano using it.

Best fix for this is time, consistent 20% weekly water changes, and possibly some GFO. May also want to look at how much you feed, and if using frozen being sure you don't use the water you thaw the cubes in, as it's loaded with phosphates.

Look into your own RODI as well, you can be sure the filters are changed, lol. Compare the cost of the water you buy, vs cost of a RODI filter. Over time, the RODI is cheaper, especially for a 90g.
 
I'm really wanting to get my own RODI, but we are planning to move in a year or so... didn't want to set up a system just to tear it down. So purchasing RO is theoretically temporary.

I don't remember reading about tanks having 'delayed' new tank syndrome... but I did start with dry rock and didn't struggle too bad with 'the uglies', so this could be a possible explanation.

I'm pretty sure it's not cyano, because it behaves differently than the two previous cyano bursts I had. I do have a bit of green cyano present now and this stuff is defiantly different


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