Id help!

[Chiefmaster30]

What is all this stuff starting to appear on my sand?

And how do I get rid of it?

 

[wkscott]

Recently set up tank, right?
Diatoms. They live on silica and once the silica in your tank is used up, they will go away. They will most likely be gone in less than a month.
Be sure to use RO/DI water as tap water usually contains silica.

After these go away, your next batch of alga will start. This is the normal part of cycling the tank.

 

[Chiefmaster30]

My tank is 8 months old

 

[DeniseAndy]

still diatoms. Sometimes tanks take longer to get through their cycles. Also, as stated above should go away on own unless you are adding food for them.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Diatoms can bloom anytime. Can happen if sand is interupted, food, new equipment.

Ways to remove them are to check your water source.

RO/DI is the way to go. Or check the TDS.
Astrea Snails also eat diatoms

 

[ahiggins]

Brownish stuff in my tank always diatoms, but I recently started getting a cyano outbreak on my sand...that's more of a deep purple (same color as coralline algae) if that helps

 

[Chiefmaster30]

I think mine is cyano too. You can tell the maroon color starting to appear on my wave makers, heater, etc.

 

[wkscott]

It is certainly not unusual for cyano to follow or to coexist with diatoms. This is quite normal in a new tank near the end of the cycling process.
At 8 months old, either your tank never completely cycled or it's going through a mini-cycle. In either case, this normally indicates suboptimal water quality.
1. How large is your tank?
2. How many, and what type of creatures do you have?
3. Have you in the last month or so added ANY animals, live rock, or sand?
4. What are your levels:
a. ph
b. temp
c. Nitrates
d. Phosphates
e. Calcium
f. Magnesium
5. What are you using for filtration?
6. Are you doing water changes? How often, how much?

Not trying to give you the third degree here, but in order to best help you, this information is critical.
Thanks.

Edit: Although much of the cyano that we get is maroon, other alga is also maroon and isn't necessarily a problem. Is yours slimmy, stringy, or bubbly?

 

[Chiefmaster30]

It's a 60 gallon tank, I use ro water.
I just went thru a 76 day fallow period bc of velvet.
Just added 2- green Chromis, six-line wrasse, and an Engineer Goby this past Thursday. Other than that I have some blue legged hermits and a sand sifting starfish.
Ph 8.1
Temp 78
Nitrates 10ppm
Phosphates 0.02
Calcium 450
Magnesium 1350
For filtration I have a Marineland Magniflow c360 canister filter. And a skimmer. I do bi-weekly water changes 30-50%. My nitrates have been about 80ppm until a couple weeks ago. That's why I've been doing such large water changes.

 

[Chiefmaster30]

My algae isn't slimed, stringy, or bubbly!

 

[reeferfoxx]

Is it RO or RO/DI?

You just have diatoms. Not a big deal. During your fallow period, did you dose any ammonia?

 

[Chiefmaster30]

Yes RO/DI water. And during fallow period I put very small pinches of flake food in every other day sometimes every 3 days.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Yes RO/DI water. And during fallow period I put very small pinches of flake food in every other day sometimes every 3 days.

Did you ever test nitrites? I have heard that with the presence of nitrites, can show very high numbers for nitrates. With addition to canister filters being nitrate factories. We've discussed why diatoms bloom, now you are suggesting cyano. You could dose h202 or I would suggest dosing MB7 for a week or so.

 

[wkscott]

Now I get it. After the fallow period, and you added those first four fish last week, you started a mini-cycle. I just knew that something had to have happened very recently that started the issue on an established tank. You may or may not have cyano. At this point, I personally would not add anything to control the issue. Feed the new fish sparingly over the next couple of weeks and then you can gradually increase the food. Continue with water changes. You don't have any coral so let the diatoms and possible cyano run their courses.

 

[Chiefmaster30]

Yes my nitrites have always been 0 since I first cycled my tank.

 

[Chiefmaster30]

So, would it be a bad idea to add more fish in a week. It'll be a week after my last addition of fish.

 

[reeferfoxx]

So, would it be a bad idea to add more fish in a week. It'll be a week after my last addition of fish.

I would wait till whatever is going on, clears up.

 

[wkscott]

So, would it be a bad idea to add more fish in a week. It'll be a week after my last addition of fish.

OK now. I am old enough to be your dad and I'm going to tell you what want to hear. Yes, you can go out and buy 3 or 4 small fish tomorrow. Really, you can and it's probably a good idea.

Now here's the real dad part: When you get those new fish home, PUT THEM IN YOUR QUARANTINE TANK and use whatever meds are necessary to make sure that they healthy and disease free before you put them into your display tank. This should take about a month and by then your DT should be ready for the new arrivals.

Not using the QT could quite possibly mean that you will be repeating what you are just now are trying to get corrected.

*

 

[Chiefmaster30]

Anyone know what this is stuck to bottom of the inside of my skimmer and it's stuck on the back side of my skimmer pump.

 

[ahiggins]

Those look like pineapple sponges or q-tip sponges. Theyre beneficial but in large numbers they can clog pipes and make the DT ugly IMO