Do i have diatoms?

M

Mesterhingsten

New member
Hi,

I am having issues with what I believe is diatoms, it has been there for a while, but I believe I had an upswing after I added some dry dead rock while rescaping my tank. I have added some pictures of the live rock. In addition parts of the sand bed is brown.

y3EUpWI.jpg


iE2yt4T.jpg


0Tfh63f.jpg



100 gallon tank, 10 months old
Alk 8.5 (Hanna)
Ca 460 (salifert)
Mg 1350 (salifert)
Salinity 1.025 (refractometer)
Phos: 0.00 (hanna)
Temp 78.5
Flow, 2x Tunze 6095 and return pump
Also did a Silicate Salifert test yesterday and as far as I could see it turned out at 0.

Lighting is 4x Radions G2 6 hrs photoperiod @65% and a couple of hours with actinic @ 5% morning and night. I am using RODI and recently changed the filters of my unit. The skimmer is pulling out gunk daily and I change filter sock every other day. I do regular water changes, which corals seem to like, but I see no change on the algae/diatom issue.

Please advise, I am getting a bit tired of the oxygen bubbles on the rocks and brown stuff on sandbed :confused:
 
Whatever these things are, they are creating oxygen bubbles, both on the rocks and on the substrate. It is fairly static on the rockwork, it doesnt grow anymore than shown in the pictures. I have tried to remove some by hand, stays clear for a short while and the back to the same.
 
I have the same thing. it looks like a short brown hair algae and sometimes has bubbles but it is definitely not hair algae. it doesnt seem to grow much if at all but will return if you clean it. im thinking some form of dino's but most likey calothrix cyano. i purchased a fairly good microscope. i plan to take a look at it when i get a chance.

Calothrix


These species of cyano often appear as a light slimy yet hairy/fuzzy nastiness that loosely attaches to your rock work. Air bubbles are usually trapped while eascaping the "algae", just like in the picture to the left. Calothrix is a type of blue green algae that looks very similar to Dinos. We have them next to each other in the guide to help you distinguish the difference between the two.

Manual Removal - Remove the rock and scrub, and then fine tune with a toothbrush. Let the cleaners get the rest. It helps to use a net to collect the debris that will occur as a result of the toothbrushing.

Clean Up Crew - Chitons, Nerites and we are looking into others.

Starving it out - Use a phosban reactor or a macro like chaeto to take down phosphate. If you have a nitrate problem too, you can add more live rock or rubble to the tank, do some more wcs, add macro, add dsb, etc...

here is the picture provided by reefcleaners.
 

Attachments

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gfo seems to do a good job controlling it. im wondering if chemiclean would work on this species of cyano. if it is cyano. the scope will tell.
 
Been tagging along this thread. I have a similar issue in my Biocube 29. Could I simply put some GFO in a mesh bag and put that in the sump to control it? Thanks for all the help and input!
 
yes you could. be careful not to add too much. siphon out as much as you can before adding gfo. watch corals for stn from the base.
 
Sorry for the double post there, my tapatalk is funny sometimes..

Yesterday I actually vacuumed up most of the stuff that was on the sand, it came out easy and was kind of encrusting on top of the sand. Hopefully it wont come back. I took out maybe 20 litres of water and poured it back to the tank through a filter sock. The sock was more dirty than the one on my return after two days of use so I must have removed something :)
 
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