Diatoms? Brown algae

gradth

gradth

Member
So my tank is pushing 2 months old. I checked my levels yesterday and my ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph were where they should be.
In the last 3 days I have had a massive outbreak of brown algae. What I have read is that they are diatoms. Should I worry about this? I am going to do a water change in the next day or two, soon as I get time. I was feeding a little in the morning and a little at night. I have cut that back to just in the evening.
Here are some pics. I have lots of bubbles in the sand and elsewhere.


 
keebler

keebler

Member
I can't tell for sure, but those kinda look like dinoflaggellates. Do they have sorta wavy stringlike things coming off them? In any case, check and post your phophates. What are you feeding, did you change foods, what about lighting? Have you had them yet? If they are new to you, then it's kinda like chicken pox, you get them once and then they go away forever.
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
Dinos are more... ummmm.... snotty.

Could be brown cyano. It comes in all sorts of colours. Or a really really bad case of diatoms but then I would expect to see it on the rock as well... which it doesn't appear to be.
 
keebler

keebler

Member
My thought with the dino was that there wasn't enough flow to make it stand up, if you know what I mean and it kinda just stayed flatish. I forgot to ask what you were using for flow. I didn't know cyano came in brown, but when I saw the bubbles that was my first thought, that is actually more likely. The bottom line is, it doesn't really matter what it is...it is harmless but ugly. Thanks for the info on cyano, I love learning stuff. Cyano is pretty common, just try to get your phophates down and stay down, your light bulbs changed appropriately, and your flow good and it should go away.
 
gradth

gradth

Member
im running a korilia 2 and a korilia 3. Not sure the best way to position them. I have tried a few different angles and such.
Been feeding a combo of mysis and brine. Alternating the two every so often. Had been feeding once early and once late, but now just in the evening.
So bottom line is this stuff is not a bad thing? just ugly and it will go away?
 
gradth

gradth

Member
Oh yeah, it is growing on the rocks, just not as much. Snails seem to be getting some of it off the rocks and walls, but not the sand.
 
keebler

keebler

Member
Originally Posted by Gradth
http:///forum/post/2767026
Oh yeah, it is growing on the rocks, just not as much. Snails seem to be getting some of it off the rocks and walls, but not the sand.
Yeah, it's just ugly. It shouldn't hurt anything. Have you had any kind of algae before this outbreak?
 
gradth

gradth

Member
So its been a few days, still tons of the brown stuff. I have done a 30% water change, been feeding less.
Levels are good.
PH 8.4
Nitrite 0
ammonia 0
Nitrate 0
Do I need more cleaners?
Have about 7 or 8 large turbo snails, about 10 smaller turbos I think? 2 small red legged hermit crabs(but they dont seem to do much). Cleaner shrimp and a coral banded shirmp, dont think they do much as far as tank cleaning either.
Any more ideas, or just let time take its course?
 
see money

see money

Member
i also have some sort of brown..something building up on my sand. im not positive its algae though, im not even sure if its living.
i recently put about 10lbs of lr in and started cycling. i removed my snails and crab. i also removed my filter and heater (using on qt for snails)
front tank

back lr

back tank

im going to drain all the water when i hook my RO system up and get more salt. is there a easy way to clean this stuff off the sand?
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
Leave it alone. That is just diatoms and will recede in quick time. It's a normal part of setting up a tank.
 
see money

see money

Member
AWSOME!

so should i try and remove it when i do my RO water change or will snails/crabs eat it up after my cycle?
Thanks
 
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