Brown diatoms on sandbed and rocks..?

[Zeal]

As title states. Not sure why I’m suddenly having this brown stuff on the and sandbed. About 2 weeks ago I was dosing AB+ and reefroids, maybe that was the trigger? I have a ton of flow in my tank

not exactly sure what’s going on. My nutrients don’t seem crazy.

i also do 5g WC every week. My tank is 43g

NO3... 10

phosphate 0.049

Alk 8.4

 

[Kinjirra]

As title states. Not sure why I’m suddenly having this brown stuff on the and sandbed. About 2 weeks ago I was dosing AB+ and reefroids, maybe that was the trigger? I have a ton of flow in my tank

not exactly sure what’s going on. My nutrients don’t seem crazy.

i also do 5g WC every week. My tank is 43g

NO3... 10

phosphate 0.049

Alk 8.4

Diatoms are completely normal especially in new tanks....sure its diatoms?

 

[Zeal]

Diatoms are completely normal especially in new tanks....sure its diatoms?

Sure does look like it. I blow it off daily and it grows back

 

[Don_Jorge]

Reef roids equal phosphate spike, try coral feast

 

[Zeal]

Reef roids equal phosphate spike, try coral feast

I’m just not going to feed the tank anymore of that ****.

 

[Kinjirra]

Diatoms should go away on their own..I added some astrea snails and that helped alot with cleanup

 

[Zeal]

Diatoms should go away on their own..I added some astrea snails and that helped alot with cleanup

I’ll look into that. Guess more CUC

 

[Zeal]

Well I just got home from work and it’s still there. Could it be my light? Maybe too much white?

 

[Dkmoo]

new tank syndrome - time/maturing tank/more diverse microfauna will take care of it. keep up with husbandry and it will go away on its own with time.

problem is not directly roid per se - it's imbalance between N/P input vs N/P absorption. - i use it every day w/o problems - it's main ingredient is zooplanktons. This can range a lot in terms of N (pods are high P - 4:1), many of the microscopic ones are low P (14 - 27N :1P). Generally it averages out. Problem is with our tanks, esp new ones, are mostly low P absorbers - algae/coral (20N : 1P). if tank is allowed to naturally mature and benthic community is established, high P organisms (pods, worms, filterfeeders,, bacteria, etc.) will take hold and uptake excess P.

problem now is excess N and P from roid has no where to go, causing Cyano/Diatom.

once this goes away you will then have algaes taking its place as primary excess N and P absorber. will go thru a few cycles of these.

try to just be patient and manual removal. Dont try to add more treatment stuff that'll just make your tank even more unstable - right now there's already a war going on under the microscope in the microfauna as different organism is trying to outcompete others for nutrient - right now diatom is winning but that will not be permanent.

 

[Zeal]

new tank syndrome - time/maturing tank/more diverse microfauna will take care of it. keep up with husbandry and it will go away on its own with time.

problem is not directly roid per se - it's imbalance between N/P input vs N/P absorption. - i use it every day w/o problems - it's main ingredient is zooplanktons. This can range a lot in terms of N (pods are high P - 4:1), many of the microscopic ones are low P (14 - 27N :1P). Generally it averages out. Problem is with our tanks, esp new ones, are mostly low P absorbers - algae/coral (20N : 1P). if tank is allowed to naturally mature and benthic community is established, high P organisms (pods, worms, filterfeeders,, bacteria, etc.) will take hold and uptake excess P.

problem now is excess N and P from roid has no where to go, causing Cyano/Diatom.

once this goes away you will then have algaes taking its place as primary excess N and P absorber. will go thru a few cycles of these.

try to just be patient and manual removal. Dont try to add more treatment stuff that'll just make your tank even more unstable - right now there's already a war going on under the microscope in the microfauna as different organism is trying to outcompete others for nutrient - right now diatom is winning but that will not be permanent.

Thanks for thr write up.

Is it ok to dose phytoplankton 1ML nightly + Brightwell macrobacteria7?

 

[Dkmoo]

Thanks for thr write up.

Is it ok to dose phytoplankton 1ML nightly + Brightwell macrobacteria7?

phyto is 16N: 1P and is good coral food so weather or not its good depends on if its dead phyto and if the corals are absorbing it vs it decomposing into 16N and 1P waste, or if its live phyto so that even if corals don't eat it, its actively trying to absorb and increase competition by absorbing 16N to 1P. Chances are you are feeding too much too fast from 2 weeks ago so if you do phyto, cut back on some other coral food - maybe remove roid for now to allow your coral to grow and catch up to the increased feeding.

Macrobacter - never used it myself so don't have personal experience with it. From product description it's a bacteria based treatment so in theory it is direct competition to Cyano/diatom and upcycles the no3/po4 back into organic compounds for coral absorption. issue here again is we don't know where the "equilibrium" point is going to end up so how much is just enough vs too much. and what does that mean to the natural bacteria now that's also fighting for competition against the diatom/cyano. and what happens when you stop using macro bacter and the competition vacuum happens again?

its a difference of "forced artificial equilibrium" vs "natural equilibrium"

not saying macrobactor or other treatment bottles dont work - they do - often extremely effectively - issue is this leads to tank dependency on these bottles and that's how companies make $$$. So its really what direction you want to take your tank.

 

[Zeal]

phyto is 16N: 1P and is good coral food so weather or not its good depends on if its dead phyto and if the corals are absorbing it vs it decomposing into 16N and 1P waste, or if its live phyto so that even if corals don't eat it, its actively trying to absorb and increase competition by absorbing 16N to 1P. Chances are you are feeding too much too fast from 2 weeks ago so if you do phyto, cut back on some other coral food - maybe remove roid for now to allow your coral to grow and catch up to the increased feeding.

Macrobacter - never used it myself so don't have personal experience with it. From product description it's a bacteria based treatment so in theory it is direct competition to Cyano/diatom and upcycles the no3/po4 back into organic compounds for coral absorption. issue here again is we don't know where the "equilibrium" point is going to end up so how much is just enough vs too much. and what does that mean to the natural bacteria now that's also fighting for competition against the diatom/cyano. and what happens when you stop using macro bacter and the competition vacuum happens again?

its a difference of "forced artificial equilibrium" vs "natural equilibrium"

not saying macrobactor or other treatment bottles dont work - they do - often extremely effectively - issue is this leads to tank dependency on these bottles and that's how companies make $$$. So its really what direction you want to take your tank.

I have discontinued all use of coral foods. AB + and reef roids since last week.

I’m not sure if the phyto is live. It was sold to me as live from someone in my area that grow it.

as for the macrobacteria7... I dosed it today 10ML. Let’s see if there’s any results in 2 weeks. It states 2 capfuls for 2 weeks.