Newbie: What is this on my sand

[BlackTracet]

It is growing everywhere. What is it? Is it normal, should I get rid of it, if so how? Tank is 5 weeks old, all chem is normal. Supporting 4 fish, 50 member cuc, skimmer running.

 

[curtcherry]

Diatoms. We all have them when a tank is first setup. They will go away in a short time.

 

[ALLIDOISREEF]

+1 diatoms

 

[curtcherry]

Is your cycle over? In other words have you seen the ammonia spike then decline to 0. Then look for Nitrite to go to zero. You will be left with nitrates. Nitrates you will have to export somehow... Water changes, chaeto, etc.

Get a clean up crew, specifically hermit crabs. My blue leg hermit crabs go after the diatoms.

 

[BlackTracet]

Yes the cycle is over. I manually spiked the ammonia to 3 ppm with 10% ammonia after week 3. Ammonia returned to 0 after 4 days with 0 nitrite and 3 nitrate. It has held there for 3 weeks with my fish and cuc in the tank.

Thanks for the responses. Diatoms. I will research those.

 

[oneofmany]

It looks like a combination of both Diatoms & Cyanobacteria IMO. The link below might help.

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

 

[SeaCucumberFan]

Diatoms. We all have them when a tank is first setup. They will go away in a short time.

I didnt get any

 

[SFish]

You don't need to do anything Diatoms will go away on there own.

 

[Unanonymous]

Are you using RO/DI water? Otherwise each tank top off just adds more food for diatoms

 

[oneofmany]

Diatoms usually feed on the available Silicates within the system. Eliminate these and you'll eliminate those.

 

[SFish]

Almost every new tank gets diatoms. They will die on their own no need to worry or do anything. They only last a few weeks. That's not Cyanobacteria by the way.

 

[oneofmany]

My tank is a little over 8 years old and every now & then I'll get a patch of Diatoms on the sand bed. Then again, I do use tap water though. The link below goes into some detail about this I believe.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/1/aafeature1

 

[SFish]

Of course you have problems if your using tap water. If you were using RO/DI you would not have diatoms.

 

[SFish]

 

[oneofmany]

Of course you have problems if your using tap water. If you were using RO/DI you would not have diatoms.

lol, you obviously didn't read my post above. Small patches on the sand bed every now and then is hardly a problem. FWIW I've seen way too many threads over the years on this site and others where people are using RO/DI water yet there still having some of the same problems that tend to accompany bad tap water. It's not so cut & dry sometimes.

 

[SFish]

If there are high levels of silica then you have to use other filters. I've never had diatoms come back. I would be worried about more then diatoms if you using tap water but what ever. Yes it depends what is in your water but starting with tap water to begin with is just asking for problems more often then not. There is no need to panic over a normal diatom bloom. If it comes back then yes I would do something about it.

 

[malx]

Where did these chats come from. Would like to check out Las Vegas.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SFish]

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-05/rhf/index.php

I guess some people are ok with diatoms happening a few times in their tank but I don't want to look at that ugly crap and have it keep coming back. I call that a problem.

 

[BlackTracet]

Are you using RO/DI water? Otherwise each tank top off just adds more food for diatoms

I am using RO water from the LFS in the ATO. Not sure if the LFS uses the DI part. Regardless sounds like I have nothing to worry about. The bloom has stabilized and may have even gone down slightly over the last day or two. FYI I also have a mesh bag of phosphate minus and another of carbon in the sump which have been in there since day 1.

 

[BlackTracet]

Diatoms usually feed on the available Silicates within the system. Eliminate these and you'll eliminate those.

How do you eliminate silicates?