Brown Spots on Sandbed

[aquarius31]

My tank is still cycling. However, I've noticed brown spots on my sandbed. Can anybody tell me what this is?

 

[poiboy]

Do a search on (diatoms, silica, phosphates, cyno). It's common on new tanks, use ro/di water and the same for top offs. Are you using tap water?

 

[aquarius31]

yes, i am topping off with declorinated tap water.

 

[poiboy]

Tap water contains a lot minerals and heavy metals among everything else.

 

[aquarius31]

Does this go away? If so, is there anything I need to do to start this process? I heard that this can be a sign of the end of the cycling period? Is this true?

 

[birdy]

If you are using water with a lot of nutrients (ie tap water) you will probably always have algae problems. Normally diatoms do go away on their own. I seem to start getting diatoms in the middle of my cycling tanks.