Is this the dredded Diatom outbreaK....?

[Seehag]

Here's a picture of my tank Today, I have been battling this stuff for a couple of week's to a month. It does not come of with my magnetic cleaner, it only comes off if I get in there with a scrubber pad and elbow grease, and then it doesn't all come off. It seems to have some sort of dotted pattern to it, and doesn't grow long hair, the snails eat it but don't seem to be leaving trails, and for whatever reason it is not growing on the top 3" of the water column. I thought I would post these pictures and get some ideas from you guy's. Water is good but Nitrates are around 20ppm, also my skimmer doesn't skim much.

Art

 

[kkyyllee]

i think its a type of coraline, i get that too

 

[Seehag]

Coraline I didn't think it looked brown green like that.

Art

 

[WaterKeeper]

I think you mean the white dots on the glass. Those appear to be Spirobids, a type of tube worm that secrets a hard, spiral calcium tube. The only control method is to do what you are currently doing. They tend to disappear over time.

 

[Seehag]

Sorry for the confusion, the white spots are bubbles on the glass, they tend acumulate there when this stuff get's bad. The bubbles do not appear to be coming from the algae or whatever it is, because they accumulate on the acrylic that has no growth.


Art

 

[WaterKeeper]

:lol:
Old WK's eyes are not so good anymore.

 

[Seehag]

No ideas on wether this is diatom's or not? I read up on green coraline algae and it seems that it need's to be scraped off, this stuff comes off easier than that. I ordered some new test kits to check the water for phosphates and calcium I will check those when they get here. Today I will clean again and do another small water change. Oh well help me out here guy's....))


Art

 

[Zann]

i have the same problem
but my tank is only two months old they say it is part of the new tank cycle well i hope so it is so bad to look at

my other tank went through it also seems to be getting better

 

[Seehag]

It just took an hour and a half to scrub front and sides clean. It appears that this doesn't grow in an area where the closed loop output hits the glass hard, so I am moving thing's around to get more flow on the acrylic. Only problem with that is not as much flow on the rock's.

Do most people clean there glass with the magnetic cleaner every day? I usually do it on the weekend when I do the maintenance.

Art

 

[Aquarist007]

consider a phosban reactor--great little units between 30-50 dollars---make a quick noticable difference on the growth of algae by absorbing phosphates

 

[kkyyllee]

get a couple power heads

 

[Seehag]

kkyllee,

I was thinking that too but don't much like the look of Powerheads in the tank. I have a closed loop I think I might be getting a bigger return pump soon.


And Capn's soon as I get my phosphate test kit I will decide on the reactor.

Art

 

[New Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10271079#post10271079 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Seehag
No ideas on wether this is diatom's or not?

Nope, going by your description, this is NOT a diatom growth. Diatoms don't adhere very strongly to the glass or substrate, and can be easily blown off with a turkey baster.

Unfortunately, your photos are not very clear, so it's a bit difficult to try and identify this growth, but going by your description alone, it could very well be green corraline algae...

Hennie

 

[Seehag]

Yep pictures are not good, one picture gives you an pretty good idea of what it look's like close up......

if you look closely above the anemones you can sort of see the speckled appearance. Maybe your monitor is not as clear as mine though....

If it is coraline is this something I got to live with? Or will it go away if I do something....

Art

 

[New Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10272334#post10272334 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Seehag
... Maybe your monitor is not as clear as mine though....

Guess so, I'm working on a laptop...

Anyway, re-looking at the photo - the small pienkish area towards the bottom right of the screen is "normal" pink corralline algae for sure. Unfortunately the rock in the background make it very difficult to get a decent view of what's on the glass. Can you take another photo of the problem without getting the rock in the background?

Re-reading the thread, I notice that the growth is absent where there is higher flow - if this is true, then it's probably NOT corraline, as they tend to do better in higher flow areas...