Any idea what this is? Just grows on sand

[merereef]

It is definitely dyno--dealt with the same thing. How old is the tank?

Tank is 6 months old.. im thinking its dino too.. feel like just taking out my sand bed

 

[User]

It is definitely dyno--dealt with the same thing. How old is the tank?

I had the same thing- brown, dusty, came and went with the lights. Microscopically confirmed as diatoms. Went away on its own accord once it exhausted the free silicates from my 120lbs of sand.

I don’t think we should be recommending a sand clean on that scale until it’s confirmed to be something other than diatoms.

 

[Mcdy]

Tank is 6 months old.. im thinking its dino too.. feel like just taking out my sand bed

IMO...sand bed is where all the good stuff is. Bacteria and so forth. Turkey baster and just blow up what you can. It'll go away.......patience. some people have called it "tank puberty" but normally seen in the early phases of a new setup.

 

[merereef]

R

I had the same thing- brown, dusty, came and went with the lights. Microscopically confirmed as diatoms. Went away on its own accord once it exhausted the free silicates from my 120lbs of sand.

I don’t think we should be recommending a sand clean on that scale until it’s confirmed to be something other than diatoms.

Really? You know it happened when i disturbed the sandbed so you defo reckon its diatoms? Mines also has a lil brown slime in places too did you have the same?

 

[merereef]

IMO...sand bed is where all the good stuff is. Bacteria and so forth. Turkey baster and just blow up what you can. It'll go away.......patience. some people have called it "tank puberty" but normally seen in the early phases of a new setup.

Yeah its not growing anywhere except the sandbed.. it started as soon as i stirred the sand bed.. so im a little hesitant so disturb the sand again.. what you reckon? Still disturb the sand?

 

[Mcdy]

R



Really? You know it happened when i disturbed the sandbed so you defo reckon its diatoms?

Yes.

 

[merereef]

Yes.

Mine has a little bit of slime in places too did you have the same? Brown slime that is like its carpeted over some of the sand in corners of low flow

 

[Mcdy]

Yeah its not growing anywhere except the sandbed.. it started as soon as i stirred the sand bed.. so im a little hesitant so disturb the sand again.. what you reckon? Still disturb the sand?

No, leave the sand bed alone. Don't stir it up or anything, ever. Just let the sand bed be. Stirring it up can really make the balance of the system get out of whack.

 

[Mcdy]

Mine has a little bit of slime in places too did you have the same? Brown slime that is like its carpeted over some of the sand in corners of low flow

Just suck that out with a turkey baster.

 

[merereef]

Just suck that out with a turkey baster.

Just disturbed the whole sand bed think il do this everyday maybe even twice a day

 

[User]

R



Really? You know it happened when i disturbed the sandbed so you defo reckon its diatoms? Mines also has a lil brown slime in places too did you have the same?

The brown patches of slime are likely to be Cyanobacteria. It’s a blue-green algae, but it comes in a bunch of different colors. Red being an obvious one- hence ‘red skime’ but also brown once it’s matured a little. Siphon it out of there isn’t too much, then check nitrates and phosphates. Cyano can creep in when these bottom out.

If your whole bed is covered, and it comes back after you siphon the surface (don’t go into the sand) then you might want to try Chemiclean (an antibiotic, so there are caveats) or Dr Tim’s waste away. That’s a mix of ‘sludge’ eating bacteria that remove nitrates abscess phosphates, and the cyano starves out. I did a chemiclean treatment 4 months ago- when my tank was 7 months old- that worked great. But I’m actually about to start a Dr Tims treatment after i came home ftom vacation and found out my tank sitter was dumping three days of food in the tank every time he came visit. Check my thread. I want to try something different and avoid a second antibiotic application so soon

 

[merereef]

No, leave the sand bed alone. Don't stir it up or anything, ever. Just let the sand bed be. Stirring it up can really make the balance of the system get out of whack.

Ohhhh crap i just read this now.. so just to clarify you are saying to turkey baste the sand and suck out any slime? Would t turkey basting it be disturbing the sandbed?

 

[User]

Just disturbed the whole sand bed think il do this everyday maybe even twice a day

Personally wouldn’t have done that, just sucked the stuff of the surface. Watch your ammonia levels as trapped food is now released and available for decomposition in an oxygen rich environment.

 

[User]

Ohhhh crap i just read this now.. damnn.. so just to clarify you are saying to turkey baste the sand and suck out any slime? Would t turkey basting it be disturbing the sandbed?

No- aim for just above the slime and it’ll get sucked in easily . It doesn’t really attach to the sand

 

[Mcdy]

Ohhhh crap i just read this now.. damnn.. so just to clarify you are saying to turkey baste the sand and suck out any slime? Would t turkey basting it be disturbing the sandbed?

All your doing is blowing the dyno off of the top layer of the sand bed so it can hopefully get pushed to your drains and then your sump and ultimately your filter. Passed that, let the sandbed be. Suck the slimy stuff out with the baster and squirt into a bucket or the sink.

 

[merereef]

Personally wouldn’t have done that, just sucked the stuff of the surface. Watch your ammonia levels as trapped food is now released and available for decomposition in an oxygen rich environment.

I know il monitor and see what happens and aimt o suck out any slime and turkey bast the sand

 

[Alexreefer]

No, leave the sand bed alone. Don't stir it up or anything, ever. Just let the sand bed be. Stirring it up can really make the balance of the system get out of whack.

I think at the age of the tank, 6 months will not have very much crap in it. @merereef
how often and how much do you feed. I have used @brandon429 sand rinse method and It worked successfully, I can show you pics from my 75 before than after. Do the sand rinse! After I saw my year-old sand bed I knew where the problem came from, and when you take out all the sand very little crap gets released into the water, taking out all the variables from the sand quickly will clean the sand and your tank inhabitants will be fine with the bacteria in the rocks. rinsed for about an hour each bucket till clear. this settled the dinos down then taking control of the tank was all it needed. Slowly green algae started to grow, and after about 3-4 months of work, the tank is happy vibrant and dino free.

 

[Alexreefer]

Here are the before pics @merereef

 

[HaloPhenom27]

Why you shoutin’?

If it’s Diatoms- wait it out. They feed on the silicates from the sand and die back naturally as the silicate stops leaching. Unless you have silicates in your water, in which case that needs addressed too. doing a DI step on your water eating I’ll call learn out silicates - mentioning the DI as you indicate you use RO water and didn’t say RODI

Not only that but Diatoms outcompete Dino.

 

[Terry Mattson]

Are diatoms toxic.