bubble in dbs
- Thread starter guppie
- Start date
jarvis
Member
bubbles are normal. Nitates get converted to nitrogen gas which will slowly bubble up out of the sand bed. As to the brown algea it is diatoms. As to if your DI water contains silicates I couldnt tell you. Do you buy it from a grocery store? Mabee someone can clarify if that is the problem. You could use a sponge media that will remove exessive silcates and sillic acid in the water.
T
thomas712
Guest
The diatoms in your case are normal due to the tank being new. Is it still cycling? This will end in time and you may have other algea blooms that come and go. If you find that they persist for months then you may need to add a phosphate or silicate remover and have that water tested that you top off with.
More about Diatoms:
http://www.aquariuminstruments.com/g...es/diatoms.htm
Thomas
More about Diatoms:
http://www.aquariuminstruments.com/g...es/diatoms.htm
Thomas
guppie
Member
The tank has been set up for 1 year, I don't beleave that it is diatom algee, this is thicker and clumps the sand together. I get the di from my lfs, I have tested the tank for phosphates with two different test kits and they both read 0. As for the nitrogen gas this happened after the tank was set up a couple months, I don't know why it is happening again, that is the part that has me pulling my hair out. Any more ideas. thanks
bang guy
Moderator
Originally posted by guppie
For about a month I have had bubbles showing up on top of my dbs,with brown algee growing on top of the dbs where the bubbles are. What causes this and what can I do to stop it? All levels are perfect, I use di water. I am lost trying to figure out what is going on. thanks.
This is a bacteria called Cyanobacter. Commonly called Cyano Algae or Red Slime. It is a symptom of too many nutrients in the water. Probably Phosphate and Nitrate.
The test to see if it actually is Cyano is to look at the tank before the lights go out and see if the amount is reduced in the morning. Cyano also requires light.
The short term fix is to just siphon it out just before lights out.
The long term fix is a refugium will algae that you can harvest periodically to remove nutrients.