Can anyone ID this

[reefndude]

Golden color with air bubbles. Very little on the rocks, mostly on the sand bed. Foxface does pick at it throughout the day

 

[Ubergroover]

cyano or diatoms is my guess....

 

[reefndude]

Do diatoms form mats as they grow? Should I just siphon it out or let it do it's thing? Thanks

 

[Ubergroover]

From my experience, Diatoms look like gold scum..Cyano from my experience can be anywhere from green, gold, black, deep red. if the stuff blows off easy then its probably cyano. which is a nutrient issue (usually). How old is the tank?

 

[Ubergroover]

Do diatoms form mats as they grow? Should I just siphon it out or let it do it's thing? Thanks

And the other thing is, does it disappear at night, then return during the day?

 

[reefndude]

From my experience, Diatoms look like gold scum..Cyano from my experience can be anywhere from green, gold, black, deep red. if the stuff blows off easy then its probably cyano. which is a nutrient issue (usually). How old is the tank?

The small amount that grew on the rocks did blow off fairly easy. Tank has been running for about 8 months. Stuff has been growing for a month maybe 2. I do have a very small patch of red cyano growing on the sand as well

 

[reefndude]

And the other thing is, does it disappear at night, then return during the day?

Does not disappear at night.

 

[Ubergroover]

Could be Diatoms AKA brown Algae.
check this out....
https://reefbum.com/pests/eliminate-prevent-diatoms-reef-tank/

 

[reefndude]

I was worried about dinos at first but seeing how it didn't disappear at nights eased my worry. Dealt with dinos in the past, was not fun. Just have never seen diatoms grow like this before in my tanks. Good thing is it is not spreading fast but want to get it under control

 

[Ubergroover]

I had diatoms at one point it looked like brown cyano , complete with bubbles in it. It took a bit but after I got my tank chemistry under control it disappeared. Every tank is different.
From your pics...thats my best answer.

 

[reefndude]

I've been working on nutrient levels. Been dosing nitrates for about two weeks two. Have it maintained at two weeks now at 5 ppm. Phosphates were at .1 ppm last time I checked. Haven't done anything to try to lower it some.
Thanks for your help

 

[Ubergroover]

Any and all algae can be a tough battle...I constantly fight GHA...Good luck and hope it works out for you.

 

[reefndude]

Been there done that. Gha, bryopsis, bubble algae.