Brown algae and bubbles suddenly all over my tank

[GP0801]

I'm pretty new to the aquarium thing but everything seemed to be going so well the past few months and all of a sudden today the tank and equipment is covered in this brown stuff and bubbles. There were even patches of sand flying around because the bubbles were carrying them through the water. What is this stuff? I'm a little worried that it's harmful to my livestock. I took a picture of the tank yesterday morning and it was completely clear although I was starting to see a bit of this stuff popping up yesterday. I included a picture from yesterday as well.

Thanks in advance.

 

[glb]

How old is your tank? If it’s pretty new I’d say diatoms, which happen in every new tank and eventually go away. It could be dinos if your nutrients bottomed out.

 

[GP0801]

I figured it could be diatoms, tank is only about 3 months old. As for nutrients I usually test nitrates at between 5 to 15.

 

[TCoach]

Most likely diatoms. Nothing to stress out over. Should go away once they've processed the nutrients the need to survive. Almost all new tanks go through this stage.

 

[czoolander]

This looks like a light case of the "uglies" there is no avoiding it . It will come and go even in an established reef tank will experience diatoms every now and then

 

[JV1981]

I myself have some of these in my 40 gallon tank at the moment. Seems to be going away day after day, I just purchased a UV today to help to clear them out

 

[Adrift]

Still sucks you have them

 

[GP0801]

Yeah definitely not pleasant to look at but my number one concern was my fish and corals, I wanted to make sure it wasn't anything harmful. I didn't know diatoms could spread so quickly I thought it might have been something else. Thanks for the reassurance everyone.

 

[Forty-Two]

try dosing frozen phytoplankton and rotifers daily. It may help clean it up faster.