Brown spot ! Help

peterjj · Jul 30, 2020

I start my tank 2 week ago, currently nitrite is 2.0, nitrate 2.0, ammonia 1.0. Everything seems working. But this morning as I wake up, so many brown spot like disease showed up in my tank. Anyone knows what it is? I attached a picture of it. Please help!

fishguy242 · Jul 30, 2020

hi not algae expert ,others will come ,welcome to the reef

Sisterlimonpot · Jul 30, 2020

are you feeding the tank? at first glance it looks like each spot had a piece of dead meaty food and what you're seeing is the decay from that.

Otherwise, I'd say the beginning stages of a diatom bloom

InvaderJim · Jul 30, 2020

Looks like a normal diatom bloom in a new tank

HOOPDEEZ · Jul 30, 2020

Just let it do it’s thing, you have a long stretch of the uglies to get through. You need to let the tank balance out, and not try to fix every little thing that pops up. In a couple weeks I would try to introduce some life. See if you can get a piece of live rock or rock rubble (perhaps a little sand as well), from a fellow reefer. Does not need to be much at all. Doing this will accelerate you towards a stable system. Let it stabilize, don’t dose anything but some bacteria, and don’t rush anything.

peterjj · Jul 30, 2020

I checked my tank again,, it’s the brown color makes sand-bed looks embossing. I haven’t put any thing yet. if it’s algae bloom, should I clean it? Thanks for the help by the way

InvaderJim · Jul 30, 2020

peterjj said:
I checked my tank again,, it’s the brown color makes sand-bed looks embossing. I haven’t put any thing yet. if it’s algae bloom, should I clean it? Thanks for the help by the way

It will disappear on its own. No need to clean it.

HOOPDEEZ · Jul 30, 2020

Just clean it off the glass and overflow if you like, but doing that Is just for aesthetics, it won’t help or hurt anything

HOOPDEEZ · Jul 30, 2020

Just to give you perspective on starting a reef tank: Dead rock takes a long time to mature. I think I waited 3-4 months to add a couple fish and 6 months to add Coral. The system was still not completely stable til a year or more later. It certainly Is better to have patience lol! Once I had a good amount of live rock, I was able to start another system very quickly.

Sisterlimonpot · Jul 30, 2020

Diatom bloom is one of the first of many step in an initial tank cycle, it will disappear as quickly ad it appeared.

In the mean time education yourself with the many stickies provided for new to the hobby members.

Calm Blue Ocean · Jul 30, 2020

Be prepared, it will likely look worse before it gets better! A new tank is full of adventures.

GBRsouth · Jul 30, 2020

peterjj said:
I start my tank 2 week ago, currently nitrite is 2.0, nitrate 2.0, ammonia 1.0. Everything seems working. But this morning as I wake up, so many brown spot like disease showed up in my tank. Anyone knows what it is? I attached a picture of it. Please help!

It's a diatom bloom. It is like a new tank's version of acne on teenagers. (Will disappear with maturity without any further action.)