Algea? Cyano? Diatoms? should I be worried?

Netotek

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Looking for help. Tank is 5 months old. One clownfish, and one tuxedo urchin.

I QT'd the urchin for 83 days before adding him to the DT about two weeks ago.
And since adding the Urchin I increased the lighting schedule to 6 hours on (I used to have it at 3 or 4 hours when the clown was in there by himself)

I keep getting this brown stuff on the glass and the water is cloudy (milky?). Parameters check out I think. I do 10-15% water changes with RODI water weekly. 20-25% if I miss a week but I rarely miss a week.
Ammonia (Hanna): 0
Nitrites (Salifert): 0
Nitrates (Hanna): 9.8
PH (Salifert): 8.0-8.1
Temp: 77.1-78.5
Salinity: 1.024

I thought it might be Algae but could it be something else? should I let it run it's course or do something. I was thinking of adding Copepods, or MicroBacter7. I have a bottle of MicroBacter START XLM but I don't know if that's a good idea or bad.

When I run the magnet cleaner it comes off easily, like a thick layer of dust, but by the next day it's back. If I clean the glass when the lights come on, by the time the lights go off, it's all back.
All the marks in it are from the clownfish. I don't really see the urchin cruising on the glass

I did the weekly water change last night and siphoned the sand, and this is the growth so far.
IMG_0876.jpg

IMG_0877.jpg
IMG_0878.jpg
 

Salty_Northerner

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Looks like diatoms. Stop your water changes and sure dose bactor7. What's your P04 at btw?

Given enough time it'll just do away on its own..

Let it run its course and hopefully you'll skip the dino phase. As long as your able to maintain nitrate and phosphate just keep adding bactor7.

If you add xlm be careful and watch the nitrates as for me they dropped really fast. I find bactor7 is a bit slower and doesn't screw around with nutrients that much as long as you don't go nuts with it. Good luck ;)
 
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Netotek

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Looks like diatoms. Stop your water changes and sure dose bactor7. What's your P04 at btw?

Given enough time it'll just do away on its own..

Let it run its course and hopefully you'll skip the dino phase. As long as your able to maintain nitrate and phosphate just keep adding bactor7.

If you add xlm be careful and watch the nitrates as for me they dropped really fast. I find bactor7 is a bit slower and doesn't screw around with nutrients that much as long as you don't go nuts with it. Good luck ;)
I.. uh.. don't know what my P04 is. I thought that was a parameter needed for corals, and I don't have any yet so I never got that test. should I go pick one up?

and what do you mean stop changing the water? for how long?
 

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal

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I.. uh.. don't know what my P04 is. I thought that was a parameter needed for corals, and I don't have any yet so I never got that test. should I go pick one up?

and what do you mean stop changing the water? for how long?
Don't do anything. What you're seeing is normal. Start increasing your clean up crew (snails, etc) and be patient as the "algae cycle" takes place.
 

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal

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Don't do anything. What you're seeing is normal. Start increasing your clean up crew (snails, etc) and be patient as the "algae cycle" takes place.
And adding pods is a great idea too.
 

Salty_Northerner

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I.. uh.. don't know what my P04 is. I thought that was a parameter needed for corals, and I don't have any yet so I never got that test. should I go pick one up?

and what do you mean stop changing the water? for how long?
What size is the tank? And yes stop water changes so not to add more Trace elements to feed the diatoms. Leave it be and they'll starve themselves out. Phosphate would be nice to know where the tank is at. Looks to me you're using dry Rock and it has probably sucked up and bottomed out your phosphate, everything needs phosphate to grow especially bacteria of the good kind. I'm dealing with Dino and diatoms and I could use a chemical treatment but on a newer tank I'm avoiding that route. Let the tank go through its own woopla so it has the troops in the long run to deal with the uglies.
 
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Netotek

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What size is the tank? And yes stop water changes so not to add more Trace elements to feed the diatoms. Leave it be and they'll starve themselves out. Phosphate would be nice to know where the tank is at. Looks to me you're using dry Rock and it has probably sucked up and bottomed out your phosphate, everything needs phosphate to grow especially bacteria of the good kind. I'm dealing with Dino and diatoms and I could use a chemical treatment but on a newer tank I'm avoiding that route. Let the tank go through its own woopla so it has the troops in the long run to deal with the uglies.
Tank is 13.5G Fluval Evo.

And thanks to everyone for the help. :) I'm going to add some pods and let the tank do it's thing.
 

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