Random diatoms?

[bsfmaximus]

About two weeks ago I noticed (what I think are) diatoms on my sand bed and glass. Around this time my sand sifting goby died. I checked my levels nothing was off but regardless I did a water change by sucking the top of the sand with vacuum. Within a day some of the red brown algae was back on the sand. With in a week it was about as bad as it was before I did the water change. I did another water change- again, next day and the algae was back. Several days later here I am doing another water change, three within two weeks.

Can anyone confirm these are diatoms from the pictures? Any ideas why I am having a recurring bloom? Any advice?
Nitrate10 ppm. I use rodi water. My tank has been established for going on a year and was transferred from a smaller tank established for a couple years.

The only thing I have done different in this time period was add ceramic rings to my canister filter, which I completely clean out every 1-2 weeks. Also I noticed the algae before adding them.

 

[CodyRVA]

I can't tell from the pics, but it could be dinos. The reason i say this is, as rapidly as they grow back from your water changes, dinos are known to grow from water changes not decline. If you haven't done anything different I'm not sure why you'd get a diatom outbreak, unless you're missing something.

Canister Notes:
Just a tip but I run a canister on a 46G bow front, and i use sintered glass media vs cyramic and it is awesome. You never want to wash it or clean it, as it will remove your good bacteria, but this stuff kicks butt and is fairly priced.

https://greatwaveeng.com/shop/media/biohome-standard-media/

This guys setup is spot on, most efficient way to run a canister:
If you have dinos:
Manually removing as much as possible.
Blackout your tank for 48 hours.
Run actinic lights only, no day light bulbs, for 24 hours and check for dinos
If you see even a small amount of them, black out your tank again for 24 hours, run actinics for another 24 and check
If after running actinics only for 48 hours and you don't see anything, it should be safe to go back to your normal light schedule.
Note: You may have to black out a few times to nuke them all, its safe for the tank, but take breaks between blackouts so your critters get some sun. I blacked mine out by killing my lights and covering with a large dense blanket.

Since you cleaned the stuff up its hard to tell, but if it grows out and looks like this... i'd say its Dinos...
http://s93.photobucket.com/user/logan20seb/media/20120906_201625.jpg.html
http://s21.photobucket.com/user/mantisfreak/media/Fish027.jpg.html

 

[Breakthecycle2]

That's def not dino's. It looks like cyano.

 

[CodyRVA]

Possibly not, but thats very similar to what mine looked like when they started.

 

[bsfmaximus]

Thanks for all the info... I hope it is not dinos. Reading on them now, they seem to be quite a pain to get rid of. I will take a look again and will probably post another picture or two. They don't appear to have the strands nor bubbles, but I could be wrong. If things are par for course, they will be back when I get home tonight.

Something I noticed... Though they appear brownish, my magic eraser turns green after wiping the glass. Maybe that is coincidence and just resulting from the normal algae but I thought it worth mentioning.

Thanks for the tips and video on the canister filter, Cody.

 

[bsfmaximus]

Sure enough, the cover of brown "stuff" is back. Just vacuumed the sand and did a water change 24 hours ago.

 

[CodyRVA]

To be honest, it doesnt look like dinos from that picture. Are you sure a snail didnt die or something; causing a heavy nutrient load?

 

[bsfmaximus]

Like I mentioned, a few weeks ago my diamond watchman died. He was a decent size so I am not sure how old he was but I started to worry because the same day he died, I noticed this crud. I pulled him out of that tank pretty quickly. I was concerned though as this is mostly appearing on the sand and he obviously sifts sand and eats some of the contents.
I've had several snails die over the past couple years, most of which were turbos. I was probably keeping too many, at one point I had 10-20 turbos plus a few each of ceriths, nassarius, nerites, and fighting conchs. Now I only have a few turbos and a couple of the others mentioned. In the past few weeks I have seen one or two dead snails. My nitrates have stayed around 20ppm the past couple weeks, although I have done 3 water changes.
I don't have a clue if this would have any impact... A huge piece of live rock I got from my LFS about 6 months ago had a lot of white sponge in the larger nooks and crannys. The sponges were exposed to air on the ride home and I've kept and eye on them from time to time. The LFS owner didn't seem concerned for my tank even if they were doomed sponges. They looked brighter white and more dense since placed in my tank. When I looked last night, what I could see almost appeared loose and brownish. Do sponges disintegrate and degrade water quality when they die?

 

[CodyRVA]

Its possible the lack of the Goby has impacted the cleaning, but i can't imagine to this extent. IMO your nitrates are high. If you're doing all those water changes and your tests still read 20ppm, thats not good. In regards to the rock with sponges, it's possible. If you can, i would pull that rock, let it set in saltwater, do a large water change in your display and see what happens. Maybe it is a nutrient load from sponges dieing off. Do you have a skimmer and is it working?

 

[bsfmaximus]

I have a skimmer and it works... how well might be up for debate. Its an AquaC Remora-S. I definitely collect dark skimmate but I never am in fear of my collection cup overflowing.

 

[CodyRVA]

Well, if you've had success with the skimmer in the past, i can't imagine its the issue unless its under performing for some reason. If you haven't changed your feeding or lighting regiments and you're doing all these water changes, something in the tank is providing the nutrients. Try removing that rock, maybe scrub the sponges off with a small brush or something, rinse it with clean salt water and replace it. Might just take time for the stuff to break down, again... assuming thats where the nutrients are coming from.

 

[bsfmaximus]

I can't tell from the pics, but it could be dinos. The reason i say this is, as rapidly as they grow back from your water changes, dinos are known to grow from water changes not decline. If you haven't done anything different I'm not sure why you'd get a diatom outbreak, unless you're missing something.

Canister Notes:
Just a tip but I run a canister on a 46G bow front, and i use sintered glass media vs cyramic and it is awesome. You never want to wash it or clean it, as it will remove your good bacteria, but this stuff kicks butt and is fairly priced.

https://greatwaveeng.com/shop/media/biohome-standard-media/

This guys setup is spot on, most efficient way to run a canister:
If you have dinos:
Manually removing as much as possible.
Blackout your tank for 48 hours.
Run actinic lights only, no day light bulbs, for 24 hours and check for dinos
If you see even a small amount of them, black out your tank again for 24 hours, run actinics for another 24 and check
If after running actinics only for 48 hours and you don't see anything, it should be safe to go back to your normal light schedule.
Note: You may have to black out a few times to nuke them all, its safe for the tank, but take breaks between blackouts so your critters get some sun. I blacked mine out by killing my lights and covering with a large dense blanket.

Since you cleaned the stuff up its hard to tell, but if it grows out and looks like this... i'd say its Dinos...
http://s93.photobucket.com/user/logan20seb/media/20120906_201625.jpg.html
http://s21.photobucket.com/user/mantisfreak/media/Fish027.jpg.html

Cody, what kind of sintered glass media do you use? I found this stuff by Eheim but the pieces look substantially smaller than those in the video. Just wondering if they would be too small to possess the internal surface area needed for the good bacteria?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002JEL0O?redirect=true&ref_=s9_simh_gw_g199_i3_r

 

[CodyRVA]

Cody, what kind of sintered glass media do you use? I found this stuff by Eheim but the pieces look substantially smaller than those in the video. Just wondering if they would be too small to possess the internal surface area needed for the good bacteria?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002JEL0O?redirect=true&ref_=s9_simh_gw_g199_i3_r

I use this stuff: https://greatwaveeng.com/shop/media/biohome-standard-media/

 

[CodyRVA]

Dup post

 

[bsfmaximus]

I use this stuff: https://greatwaveeng.com/shop/media/biohome-standard-media/

Awesome! That looks like what the guy was using in the video. I am excited to try the sintered glass media and appreciate your guidance on the canister filter. One more question - do you run carbon? Where would it go in the order of media? Before the sintered glass or after?

 

[CodyRVA]

I run carbon, but I use a reactor, the BRS mini reactor. I don't run carbon in my canister, it's almost worthless to do so. I do half a cup of carbon and a quarter cup of GFO in the reactor.