Are these diatoms?

[Cincy_Reefer]

I’ve noticed what looks like brown algae starting to propagate on a portion of my sand bed.

I took some pics under white light and posted below.

Might be tough to ID from pics… but are these early stages of diatoms?

thanks in advance!

 

[GillMeister]

Yes. That sure looks like diatoms. If it's a new tank i'd put it at close to 100%. They'll go away as the tank ages. Best way to minimize it is make sure your water is RODI to eliminate most of the silica, which is used by the diatoms.

 

[Cincy_Reefer]

Thanks for the response! Interesting that they’re showing up, I’m only using RODI in my tank. I’ll make sure to keep at it.