Any idea what this is? Just grows on sand

[Alexreefer]

Are diatoms toxic.

No, they are not toxic, Dinos, on the other hand, can be and will kill snails if they eat dino's.

 

[merereef]

Are diatoms toxic.

No they are part of the tank maturing so nothing to worry about

 

[merereef]

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.

Thank you so much seriously... so just to clarify take out all the sand and flush it in tap water till theres no more dirt? Then after an hour put it back in the tank? I feed twice a day small amount enough they can eat it all within 10 seconds

 

[Terry Mattson]

No, they are not toxic, Dinos, on the other hand, can be and will kill snails if they eat dino's.

Thanks.

 

[User]

Are diatoms toxic.

No

Completely inert from a livestock perspective.

 

[Alexreefer]

Thank you so much seriously... so just to clarify take out all the sand and flush it in tap water till theres no more dirt? Then after an hour put it back in the tank? I feed twice a day small amount enough they can eat it all within 10 seconds

Yes exactly. Seeing you feed very little your sand won't be very dirty but be prepared to see some crap. I would do the rinse during the weekend when you have time, rinsing is time-consuming so you want to have time to finish. I found the best way to take out the sand is a 1/2 in pvc tube. Start a siphon and dig deep in the sand so you get more sand than water. If you get too much water you can always dump it back. Make sure you have your circulation pumps running to help aerate the water for the fish and everything should go fine. @brandon429 how does that sound?

 

[Alexreefer]

@merereef any updates?

 

[merereef]

@merereef any updates?

So i turned the lights off for 3 days and turned it back on... on second day the brown stuff came back... so i literally 5 minutes ago finished removing about half and inch of sand... i might not even put that back in to be honest.. il monitor it if more comes back il just keep removing.. the sand i have already removed i will rinse tomorrow.. what you think? Will this be ok or should i remove it all?

 

[Alexreefer]

So i turned the lights off for 3 days and turned it back on... on second day the brown stuff came back... so i literally 5 minutes ago finished removing about half and inch of sand... i might not even put that back in to be honest.. il monitor it if more comes back il just keep removing.. the sand i have already removed i will rinse tomorrow.. what you think? Will this be ok or should i remove it all?

You could remove all the sand and rinse on a later date. if you want to put the sand back in after the dinos are gone then rinse the sand clean on the day you put the sand back in so the sand doesn't have a chance to get dirty again.

 

[merereef]

You could remove all the sand and rinse on a later date. if you want to put the sand back in after the dinos are gone then rinse the sand clean on the day you put the sand back in so the sand doesn't have a chance to get dirty again.

So what you’re saying is to put the aand back in after the dinos have gone? The crazy thing is the dinos are only growing in the sand so id never know if its gone or not. Should i wait a certain amount of time before adding the sand back in?

 

[merereef]

You could remove all the sand and rinse on a later date. if you want to put the sand back in after the dinos are gone then rinse the sand clean on the day you put the sand back in so the sand doesn't have a chance to get dirty again.

After rinsing in tap water should i soak the sand in ro water? Or let it air dry before adding back in to the tank? Or should i just rinse well in tap water and then add back in to aquarium? Im also wondering how long i should wait untill i should add the sand back in

 

[Alexreefer]

After rinsing in tap water should i soak the sand in ro water? Or let it air dry before adding back in to the tank? Or should i just rinse well in tap water and then add back in to aquarium? Im also wondering how long i should wait untill i should add the sand back in

I would rinse the sand with some ro water then return to tank. If you have Dino's only in the sand you might be in luck and you could remove them entirely. Do you have a UV? might help if they Dino spores are floating around in the water. Its up to you when you want to put the sand back in. you could wait a day or two and see if any dinos how on the rocks, or add back the same day.

 

[HaloPhenom27]

I have beat just about everything you can run into with regards to nuisance algae and bacteria in the first 6 months on my new tank and I have done so through a strict routine when a problem arises, which is comman in the first year.

Diatoms go away on their own as the tank matures. I have beat Dino with ease as well as Briopsis through a method I use that uses different strains of beneficial bacteria dosing. I personally use Vibrant, Dr. Tims Waste Away, and Turbo Start 900. I use those in conjunction with Vodka (Carbon Dosing) to feed that beneficial bacteria the Glucose they need to multiply even more. In doing so I beat both in 10 days and have yet to see any of it return. H202 is also used in the plan towards the end of the regimen and directly into the skimmer airline.

There is a very specific way to do what I talked about, and in a very specific way, this includes filtering water through a 1 micron filter sock (not from the aquarium industry) to catch any Dino and GHA dieing off, and then returning that same water back to the tank.

The 1 micron filter sock is small enough to catch Dino (about 5 microns), GHA, and just about anything outside of the dissolved salt in your water and the water itself.

With that said, if you have Dino or GHA, you want to battle it with everything you have and impose your will on it. So in order to beat it, sand straininv as mentioned, could just be another weapon in your arsenal to employ against it.

I have never had a problem with Cyano or even seen it in my tanks as I keep my tanks well oxygenated and always have good flow in them. Cyano does not like either. I am thoroughly convinced that there is nothing I can't beat with regards to Algae, Dino, and Cyano with my plan.

 

[merereef]

I have beat just about everything you can run into with regards to nuisance algae and bacteria in the first 6 months on my new tank and I have done so through a strict routine when a problem arises, which is comman in the first year.

Diatoms go away on their own as the tank matures. I have beat Dino with ease as well as Briopsis through a method I use that uses different strains of beneficial bacteria dosing. I personally use Vibrant, Dr. Tims Waste Away, and Turbo Start 900. I use those in conjunction with Vodka (Carbon Dosing) to feed that beneficial bacteria the Glucose they need to multiply even more. In doing so I beat both in 10 days and have yet to see any of it return. H202 is also used in the plan towards the end of the regimen and directly into the skimmer airline.

There is a very specific way to do what I talked about, and in a very specific way, this includes filtering water through a 1 micron filter sock (not from the aquarium industry) to catch any Dino and GHA dieing off, and then returning that same water back to the tank.

The 1 micron filter sock is small enough to catch Dino (about 5 microns), GHA, and just about anything outside of the dissolved salt in your water and the water itself.

With that said, if you have Dino or GHA, you want to battle it with everything you have and impose your will on it. So in order to beat it, sand straininv as mentioned, could just be another weapon in your arsenal to employ against it.

I have never had a problem with Cyano or even seen it in my tanks as I keep my tanks well oxygenated and always have good flow in them. Cyano does not like either. I am thoroughly convinced that there is nothing I can't beat with regards to Algae, Dino, and Cyano with my plan.

Thank you.. i seem to have a brown dust like colour in patches of the sand.. looks like rust colour any idea what that may be? No bubbles no strings just brown rust like in different areas

 

[HaloPhenom27]

Thank you.. i seem to have a brown dust like colour in patches of the sand.. looks like rust colour any idea what that may be? No bubbles no strings just brown rust like in different areas

That sounds just like Diatoms. Diatoms are normal for an aquarium in it's first year. Let them run their course.

GHA is green but can look alot like Dino when they first appear. The difference being that Dino looks more like a mucous like snot. Whereas GHA looks hairlike. Where they can look similar at the onset is the green is not as visible in that GHA and they look like they have micro bubbles at the tips when just appearing. Dino also has what looks like tiny air bubbles in it. Dino is the worst of the worst IMHO and can be confused with Diatoms simply because the brownish/rust kind of color is similar. Outside of that, they don't share many characteristics.

Diatoms have a dusty kind of look to them. Leave those be. If there is any question, identify under a microscope.

 

[merereef]

That sounds just like Diatoms. Diatoms are normal for an aquarium in it's first year. Let them run their course.

GHA is green but can look alot like Dino when they first appear. The difference being that Dino looks more like a mucous like snot. Whereas GHA looks hairlike. Where they can look similar at the onset is the green is not as visible in that GHA and they look like they have micro bubbles at the tips when just appearing. Dino also has what looks like tiny air bubbles in it. Dino is the worst of the worst IMHO and can be confused with Diatoms simply because the brownish/rust kind of color is similar. Outside of that, they don't share many characteristics.

Diatoms have a dusty kind of look to them. Leave those be. If there is any question, identify under a microscope.

That makes me feel a lot better thank you.. i stirred the sand so maybe its caused another diatom bloom i will leave it alone thank you again for your help

 

[moz71]

I know probably in thread but if tank is within a year just leave it. I had same exact thing in my tank from month 2 to 11 months. Thought diatoms returned but was not, it would not easily blow off and just on sand. All of a sudden in month 12 it just disappeared in a matter of 2 days. I think just part of some of our tanks maturing and finally gave up on trying to identify one of the thousands of things is exactly was.

 

[merereef]

I know probably in thread but if tank is within a year just leave it. I had same exact thing in my tank from month 2 to 11 months. Thought diatoms returned but was not, it would not easily blow off and just on sand. All of a sudden in month 12 it just disappeared in a matter of 2 days. I think just part of some of our tanks maturing and finally gave up on trying to identify one of the thousands of things is exactly was.

Thank you... everything else is perfect levels are in the right place corals are happy and growing so i think i will do just that leave it alone

 

[moz71]

BTW, It drove me crazy too! lol I tried vacuuming to no avail. But when it did die off, I did vacuum again as i could see sand looked a little dirty (probably just the dead algae matter). Sand looks awesome now. fingers crossed it doesn't return. good luck

 

[merereef]

How many gallons is the tank


The most important determination on how to fix it is determined by number of gallons not the species interestingly. Number of gallons determines how easy it is to access that tank for cleaning

If the tank is accessible for cleaning that can be beaten without much issue

I think i will give the sand rinse method ago in a very soon thank you