Algea or Diatom

[gregrock68]

Hi all - newbie dealing with some type of algea bloom and could use a little help. See my attached pictures. I cleaned my tank walls this morning about 3 hours ago and this has already reappeared. Tank is 1 month old, maybe it's Diatoms, but it almost has a green tint, on the sand it looks brown when it appears (daily). Appears more with the lights on (tuna blue kessil ap9x) but still appears with lights off. Cuc in place, but this accumulates ridiculously fast! Also, I noticed that my sand has air bubbles in it, is this unusual? Phos tests at. 04, temp 79*, calcium 470, nitrite non existent, nitrates 10. Its a 40 aio, I am running poly filter, carbon, tunze 9004 DC skimmer (producing nothing thus far). I will cycled my rock months ago and it cycled a while ago. Appreciate your assistance!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Nutrients plus lights equals algae. Algae is a natural part of any reef. We all have to scrape our glass every day. Your tank is going through a normal maturing process.

 

[kingranch2003]

Oh my friend you are right where you need to be! I had the same questions when I set my tank up. I hated those bubbles and figured I did something wrong. They're still there in some places but have mostly settled 6 months later. I was a little surprised to learn the I'd have to clean my glass everyday but, as mentioned above, I did. You probably have diatoms there. Nothing is going on there that good tank maintenance and

cuc can't handle. Here are the bubbles in my sand the day I set it up. The other Pic is the tank now with bubbles still visible in my beautiful DIATOM GARDEN.

 

[gregrock68]

Nutrients plus lights equals algae. Algae is a natural part of any reef. We all have to scrape our glass every day. Your tank is going through a normal maturing process.

Appreciate the assistance. I was trying to remember back 25 years ago to my prior reef tank and I didn't recall having to clean the glass every day, then reading post from other guys only cleaning their glass every few days had me second-guessing things. Appreciate it Mr Mojo Rising, BTW, love your musical abilities

 

[gregrock68]

Oh my friend you are right where you need to be! I had the same questions when I set my tank up. I hated those bubbles and figured I did something wrong. They're still there in some places but have mostly settled 6 months later. I was a little surprised to learn the I'd have to clean my glass everyday but, as mentioned above, I did. You probably have diatoms there. Nothing is going on there that good tank maintenance and

cuc can't handle. Here are the bubbles in my sand the day I set it up. The other Pic is the tank now with bubbles still visible in my beautiful DIATOM GARDEN.

Looks identical! Excellent! Thank you. I am using ro di water, but I really didn't expect a break out to this degree. Good news is that everything is thriving, and all parameters check out fine