Diatom bloom

[Shawn_epicurious]

My tank has been going for about 5 months now. About a month ago I had a diatom bloom. I have been doing heavy vacuuming with my water changes. How much longer does this last? There is less of it now, but it keeps coming back: (

 

[paul01609]

Could be Dino

 

[Flippers4pups]

Are you sure it's diatoms?

 

[Earthquake]

are you adding new rocks or anything causing a mini cycle?

 

[Fishko]

R u using rodi?

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

Are you sure it's diatoms?

Brown powdery.. mostly on the sand.... pretty sure....? I just cleaned it up and did a water change today, so I can’t give you a picture of it.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

are you adding new rocks or anything causing a mini cycle?

Just the opposite. I stopped putting livestock in my tank ... oddly enough, about a month ago. I have a mixed reef 200 gal, mostly softies. I have been in a build mode getting ready to go SPS in a few more months after my tank matures. I’ve bought a lot of nice equipment, but none of it is really running right now.

This stuff almost disappears over night but is back by the end of a light cycle. I am not even doing heavy lighting right now. I don’t need it yet.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

R u using rodi?

Yes, I am. ...roughly 200 gallons of usage since everything inside it was replaced (basic maintenance)

 

[Flippers4pups]

Brown powdery.. mostly on the sand.... pretty sure....? I just cleaned it up and did a water change today, so I can’t give you a picture of it.

Unfortunately a microscope identification is needed as diatoms and certain dinoflagellates look similar with the necked eye.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Evening,

How is the CuC looking? May not be a cure, but cannot hurt to be sure you are fully stocked there.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

Evening,

How is the CuC looking? May not be a cure, but cannot hurt to be sure you are fully stocked there.

200 gallon tank... almost 300 pounds of live rock (half fresh from the ocean and half cured in LFS tank)

My clean up crew is pretty solid. I put the following in before any livestock went in

20 small turbo snails
20 smaller hermit crabs
4 cleaner shrimp
2 red shrimp (these were just cool so I got them)

then a week later

20 more small turbo snails
10 elephant snails.. narcissu... maybe : ) I never remember this one
8 conches
4 emerald crabs (only 2 of these are still alive)

most of that is still alive. I see very few empty shells that never move. I still have all of the shrimp.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

Unfortunately a microscope identification is needed as diatoms and certain dinoflagellates look similar with the necked eye.

That’s the one thing I can’t do

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

I Skim 24/7... I have active carbon running thru a cool little reactor.. A neptune is helping me keep salinity, ORP and temp very stable... the ph probe still hasn’t made it all the way thru a calibration cycle, so it is not reading correctly... however, I can see the range of movement in it. Ph is very stable.

no ammonia in months... my water is crystal clear and I clean the glass every other day... no big build up of green Algae in that time...

 

[Suohhen]

What is your lighting regimen?

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

What is your lighting regimen?

Minimal... I am only running an 8 hour cycle. Below are two pics from my AI. My center light doesn’t sync up with my two outer lights... so, 2 pics

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

What is your lighting regimen?

I should have added this... sorry...

2 Hydra 32s and 1 Hydra 26 in the center

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

The only thing left is how I feed right?

the clean up crew is up there somewhere : ) the rest of my bioload is 21 corals/anemones across 13 species... the corals are all softies. The fish...

1 9” snowflake eel
1 6” foxface
1 5” blue hippo tang
1 4 “ copperband butterfly fish
1 4” fairy wrasse
5 3” PJ Cardinal fish
3 orange and white clowns
2 black and white clowns

I feed 4 scoops of a good pellet dry food. I always feed that first. (The scoop is really small it came with the food) daily

I feed 30ml of Algea barn phytoplankton daily
i feed three cubes of frozen shrimp (three different formals, but still pretty much my sis shrimp daily
one little squirt of Arcti Pods (nothing in my tank gets excited about this. I am going to switch this back to the Roe when it’s gone)
one small squirt of oyster fest every 2 or 3 days (my softies don’t need much)

The rest Just sort of depends. If my eel manages to hold of a cube before it falls apart, then that’s all he gets. He is a crappy hunter lol... if he doesn’t get that, then I directly feed him one or two “re”- hydrated krill. I also feed my Maxi Mini Anemoe on of these shrimp every second day.

all the food is gone within 5 minutes... yes, I may still be over feeding... it feels like the right amount

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

The only thing left is how I feed right?

the clean up crew is up there somewhere : ) the rest of my bioload is 21 corals/anemones across 13 species... the corals are all softies. The fish...

1 9” snowflake eel
1 6” foxface
1 5” blue hippo tang
1 4 “ copperband butterfly fish
1 4” fairy wrasse
5 3” PJ Cardinal fish
3 orange and white clowns
2 black and white clowns

I feed 4 scoops of a good pellet dry food. I always feed that first. (The scoop is really small it came with the food) daily

I feed 30ml of Algea barn phytoplankton daily
i feed three cubes of frozen shrimp (three different formals, but still pretty much my sis shrimp daily
one little squirt of Arcti Pods (nothing in my tank gets excited about this. I am going to switch this back to the Roe when it’s gone)
one small squirt of oyster fest every 2 or 3 days (my softies don’t need much)

The rest Just sort of depends. If my eel manages to hold of a cube before it falls apart, then that’s all he gets. He is a crappy hunter lol... if he doesn’t get that, then I directly feed him one or two “re”- hydrated krill. I also feed my Maxi Mini Anemoe on of these shrimp every second day.

all the food is gone within 5 minutes... yes, I may still be over feeding... it feels like the right amount

I left out the nori sheets... there is almost always nori available

 

[Suohhen]

Things like this are tricky because algae issues in sand are very common and there is a drastic difference between the significance of diatoms vs dino. Here is a thread with a great method for identifying dinoflagellates

Helpful Method for Identifying Dinoflagellates

There have been dozens (probably hundreds) of posts from people trying to identify dinoflagellates in their aquarium. I have posted this in other threads but figured it might be helpful to start a thread explaining this method. Dinoflagellates are single-celled organisms that aggregate to form...

www.reef2reef.com

You could try running carbon less frequently, but depending on the softies you keep that may not be much of an option. My first reaction to algae is always to reduce lighting. You could have the lighting ramp up and down through the day and keep the same lighting period.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

Things like this are tricky because algae issues in sand are very common and there is a drastic difference between the significance of diatoms vs dino. Here is a thread with a great method for identifying dinoflagellates

Helpful Method for Identifying Dinoflagellates

There have been dozens (probably hundreds) of posts from people trying to identify dinoflagellates in their aquarium. I have posted this in other threads but figured it might be helpful to start a thread explaining this method. Dinoflagellates are single-celled organisms that aggregate to form...

www.reef2reef.com

You could try running carbon less frequently, but depending on the softies you keep that may not be much of an option. My first reaction to algae is always to reduce lighting. You could have the lighting ramp up and down through the day and keep the same lighting period.

I am about to click the link and read it. Thank you for that. : )

One thing I have to admit is my knowledge of lighting. It sucks! My lighting is a mystery to me. It was set up by a professional, but that doesn’t really mean he is a lighting expert. I’ve met very few reefers that truly understand lighting. My research has keeps hitting dead ends...

However... you just brought up a major clue. Whatever this Algea is, showed up after a rather major change to my lighting. (That’s a long story) I “lost” my original lighting setup... my LFS set up my current lighting.... I have longer periods of white light now. and ....less blue.

Could that be it?