Hi all not sure if this is the correct place still pretty new to this. I’ve just notice this growing at the bottom of my tank and not sure what it is any help would be greatly appreciated it’s the bubble looking stuff on the sand
ID please
- Thread starter Saratrev
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Could be oxygen. Is it a new tank? They call it new tank syndrome. I have a ton of air bubbles on my algae also.
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Filter feeder. Do nothing but enjoy. Just careful when you vacuum sand
Filter feeder. Do nothing but enjoy. Just careful when you vacuum sand
It is probably just oxygen. The bubbles formed for me when I replaced my florescent lights with led lights. You could lower the light, or do what I do and just live with it.
Bret Brinkmann
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Feather dusters don't have bubbles guys. 
You and Ralph should look into this more. It could be diatoms or dinoflagellates (dinos for short). Diatoms are harmless unless their growth gets out of hand and they over grow something you care about. Usually they just grow on the sand while your new tank is cycling, then fade after a few weeks. Dinos can and will kill coral and snails if not treated and eventually overrun the tank.
An easy way to tell the difference is that dinos will cycle between not as bad when the lights first come on in the morning and most severe by the end of the day before the lights go off. This is because when the lights go off, some of them return to the water column where they came from. The overall growth will increase but it will look a little better in the morning than it did the night before. Diatoms have steady growth over time without this cyclical behavior.
Dinos usually just get worse and worse until they take over your tank killing your inverts and corals. They bloom under conditions of long photo periods of 12+ hours per day under more intense lighting like 20K LEDs for example. Additionally bringing phosphates to 0.00 ppm is a very good way to get them to bloom. Nitrates may not necessarily be 0 ppm but if they are it will encourage dinos to bloom more.
Dino blooms have been triggered when people switch to a new higher PAR lighting system, often LEDs (Ralph thinking of you here) and/or running too much phosphate removing medium like GFO or Phosban. I got them when I did both of these things.
To get rid of dinos and prevent them from blooming you'll need to get your phosphate to at least 0.1 ppm and nitrate to at least 1 ppm. If you currently have a bloom, then also reduce your photo period and light intensity if you can. Manually remove larger clumps weekly to keep them from getting out of hand. It usually takes 6 months to fully recover from a bloom so you'll want jump on it quick. Running carbon for the toxins that some strains release will help prevent your snails and corals from suffering any health issues.
Measuring phosphate at these small levels is very demanding for test kits. The only two I found that are worth while are the Hanna LR phosphate or ULR phosphorus. While other test kits can have the refinement needed for these trace levels, the color scales used to determine the value are a pain to judge at best and many people find they don't match anything close enough to even make a call. But you definitely need a low range tester because something like an API tester just doesn't have the refinement.
You and Ralph should look into this more. It could be diatoms or dinoflagellates (dinos for short). Diatoms are harmless unless their growth gets out of hand and they over grow something you care about. Usually they just grow on the sand while your new tank is cycling, then fade after a few weeks. Dinos can and will kill coral and snails if not treated and eventually overrun the tank.
An easy way to tell the difference is that dinos will cycle between not as bad when the lights first come on in the morning and most severe by the end of the day before the lights go off. This is because when the lights go off, some of them return to the water column where they came from. The overall growth will increase but it will look a little better in the morning than it did the night before. Diatoms have steady growth over time without this cyclical behavior.
Dinos usually just get worse and worse until they take over your tank killing your inverts and corals. They bloom under conditions of long photo periods of 12+ hours per day under more intense lighting like 20K LEDs for example. Additionally bringing phosphates to 0.00 ppm is a very good way to get them to bloom. Nitrates may not necessarily be 0 ppm but if they are it will encourage dinos to bloom more.
Dino blooms have been triggered when people switch to a new higher PAR lighting system, often LEDs (Ralph thinking of you here) and/or running too much phosphate removing medium like GFO or Phosban. I got them when I did both of these things.
To get rid of dinos and prevent them from blooming you'll need to get your phosphate to at least 0.1 ppm and nitrate to at least 1 ppm. If you currently have a bloom, then also reduce your photo period and light intensity if you can. Manually remove larger clumps weekly to keep them from getting out of hand. It usually takes 6 months to fully recover from a bloom so you'll want jump on it quick. Running carbon for the toxins that some strains release will help prevent your snails and corals from suffering any health issues.
Measuring phosphate at these small levels is very demanding for test kits. The only two I found that are worth while are the Hanna LR phosphate or ULR phosphorus. While other test kits can have the refinement needed for these trace levels, the color scales used to determine the value are a pain to judge at best and many people find they don't match anything close enough to even make a call. But you definitely need a low range tester because something like an API tester just doesn't have the refinement.
Feather dusters don't have bubbles guys.
You and Ralph should look into this more. It could be diatoms or dinoflagellates (dinos for short). Diatoms are harmless unless their growth gets out of hand and they over grow something you care about. Usually they just grow on the sand while your new tank is cycling, then fade after a few weeks. Dinos can and will kill coral and snails if not treated and eventually overrun the tank.
An easy way to tell the difference is that dinos will cycle between not as bad when the lights first come on in the morning and most severe by the end of the day before the lights go off. This is because when the lights go off, some of them return to the water column where they came from. The overall growth will increase but it will look a little better in the morning than it did the night before. Diatoms have steady growth over time without this cyclical behavior.
Dinos usually just get worse and worse until they take over your tank killing your inverts and corals. They bloom under conditions of long photo periods of 12+ hours per day under more intense lighting like 20K LEDs for example. Additionally bringing phosphates to 0.00 ppm is a very good way to get them to bloom. Nitrates may not necessarily be 0 ppm but if they are it will encourage dinos to bloom more.
Dino blooms have been triggered when people switch to a new higher PAR lighting system, often LEDs (Ralph thinking of you here) and/or running too much phosphate removing medium like GFO or Phosban. I got them when I did both of these things.
To get rid of dinos and prevent them from blooming you'll need to get your phosphate to at least 0.1 ppm and nitrate to at least 1 ppm. If you currently have a bloom, then also reduce your photo period and light intensity if you can. Manually remove larger clumps weekly to keep them from getting out of hand. It usually takes 6 months to fully recover from a bloom so you'll want jump on it quick. Running carbon for the toxins that some strains release will help prevent your snails and corals from suffering any health issues.
Measuring phosphate at these small levels is very demanding for test kits. The only two I found that are worth while are the Hanna LR phosphate or ULR phosphorus. While other test kits can have the refinement needed for these trace levels, the color scales used to determine the value are a pain to judge at best and many people find they don't match anything close enough to even make a call. But you definitely need a low range tester because something like an API tester just doesn't have the refinement.
In my case my Nitrate is hanging at 40ppm so while I know I have some diatoms, I have far more algae. Especially now that I added a bleached hammer that I'm power-feeding back to health. I know my bubbles are oxygen because I see them floating to the top all day long.
