What is this?

[Teemingtank]

pretty bad outbreak, unsure if this is red slime or brown diatom. Tank is 30 gallons. Been running for close to 5 months, maybe 20 pounds of live rock, and the rest (the white) is recently added bare rock. Nitrates are between 0-20ppm, nitrite 0, ph between 8.0-8.5

. Really don’t want to add chemicals, also tired of looking at the ugly mess.

 

[Evan28395950]

Last picture looks like a type of gha

 

[Teemingtank]

Last picture looks like a type of gha

Should I just remove that completely?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Toothbrush and more snails.

 

[hotashes]

@brandon429 it’s one for you, I think I will link this to the thread.

A.

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

IMO it looks like normal dry rock cycle stages. I agree with more snails and a toothbrush. Here is a link for reference with pictures. You can compare what you have.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cycle-process-and-stages.284898/

Also 0-20 nitrates is a big range. If you want to minimize algae try getting this below 10 consistently

 

[Teemingtank]

IMO it looks like normal dry rock cycle stages. I agree with more snails and a toothbrush. Here is a link for reference with pictures. You can compare what you have.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cycle-process-and-stages.284898/

Also 0-20 nitrates is a big range. If you want to minimize algae try getting this below 10 consistently

Thank you, I’m using a test strip. Not exactly precise, but I have a relative idea!

 

[Teemingtank]

IMO it looks like normal dry rock cycle stages. I agree with more snails and a toothbrush. Here is a link for reference with pictures. You can compare what you have.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cycle-process-and-stages.284898/

Also 0-20 nitrates is a big range. If you want to minimize algae try getting this below 10 consistently

I have 2 snails at the moment and they are extremely lazy . I believe they are trochus. Have you had better luck with a different species?
Also I’ve been doing about 5 gallon water changes every other day with RO in an attempt to combat this

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

I’m not a snail expert so you may want to search for what’s best. I have 2 decent sized Mexican turbos and 3 small astraea that seem to mow stuff down in a 32 gallon.