DIATOMS. Please help determine the source.

[TopClamSkoo]

I’m still new so I’m still learning how to work outside the box lol but a lot of the beginner sources tell us if it isn’t 0 TDS don’t let it anywhere near your tank. So far, I think that may be a little too over the top. Heck some people on here are using unfiltered tap water in their display all the time. Sure, a problem is more likely to arise eventually doing it that way, but I just can’t see a few remnants of unfiltered tap water killing off a tank.

I agree.. it also depends where you live... some places have high tds levels than others... or if you live near the late jake adams... his tap water is apparently very clean, so he only uses carbon blocks!

BTW. thanks for the heads up on making sure what my problem actually is... I almost bought vibrant an hour ago to solve the problem... but after you warned me. I started to look deeper into this and found out adding bacteria can cause a chain of reaction that will cause another problem to surface.

hmm... maybe i should do the sand wash or buy a diamond back goby to keep the sand stirred..

Funny thing is... this diatom/dino on my sand only grows and clumps up in shaded areas. maybe my lights are too strong for it to grow on the rocks or sand where the light is blasting? My crocea and milipora seem to love it tho lol!

 

[Troylee]

I’m still new so I’m still learning how to work outside the box lol but a lot of the beginner sources tell us if it isn’t 0 TDS don’t let it anywhere near your tank. So far, I think that may be a little too over the top. Heck some people on here are using unfiltered tap water in their display all the time. Sure, a problem is more likely to arise eventually doing it that way, but I just can’t see a few remnants of unfiltered tap water killing off a tank.

Def won’t kill off a tank.. it will cause a algae explosion.. I mean if you filled it completely with tap water and didn’t wait 24 hours before putting live stock in, chlorine could be a issue…

 

[woodyarmadillo]

Def won’t kill off a tank.. it will cause a algae explosion.. I mean if you filled it completely with tap water and didn’t wait 24 hours before putting live stock in, chlorine could be a issue…

They use prime for the chlorine but still yeah… algae for sure

 

[Troylee]

I agree.. it also depends where you live... some places have high tds levels than others... or if you live near the late jake adams... his tap water is apparently very clean, so he only uses carbon blocks!

BTW. thanks for the heads up on making sure what my problem actually is... I almost bought vibrant an hour ago to solve the problem... but after you warned me. I started to look deeper into this and found out adding bacteria can cause a chain of reaction that will cause another problem to surface.

hmm... maybe i should do the sand wash or buy a diamond back goby to keep the sand stirred..

Funny thing is... this diatom/dino on my sand only grows and clumps up in shaded areas. maybe my lights are too strong for it to grow on the rocks or sand where the light is blasting? My crocea and milipora seem to love it tho lol!

Clumps would be Dino’s… diatoms is more of a dusting in my experience. A microscope would tell you for sure thou..

 

[woodyarmadillo]

I agree.. it also depends where you live... some places have high tds levels than others... or if you live near the late jake adams... his tap water is apparently very clean, so he only uses carbon blocks!

BTW. thanks for the heads up on making sure what my problem actually is... I almost bought vibrant an hour ago to solve the problem... but after you warned me. I started to look deeper into this and found out adding bacteria can cause a chain of reaction that will cause another problem to surface.

hmm... maybe i should do the sand wash or buy a diamond back goby to keep the sand stirred..

Funny thing is... this diatom/dino on my sand only grows and clumps up in shaded areas. maybe my lights are too strong for it to grow on the rocks or sand where the light is blasting? My crocea and milipora seem to love it tho lol!

I don’t know anything about reef keeping, but the one thing that stuck with me as I’ve been learning is to make sure you are addressing the correct problem and know the consequences of what you are doing or things could get messy quickly. Hearing about how dosing one thing could have an impact on other parameters scared me a bit so I’m pretty cautious on treatment.

 

[brandon429]

Algae Identification

Any opinions on what type of algae this is growing on my rocks and sand bed?

www.reef2reef.com

Study that set of 7 rip cleans for the win, it is indeed the safest route because it preps your tank against tradeoff invasions

That's exactly why we rinse in tap, unlimited thorough rinsing then final rinse with saltwater or ro di last step. Other methods kill this invasion in the tank and sink its mass down into the sand to be used as substrate for dinos or hair algae or cyano, a rip clean is healthy for any reef. That's seven above, we have another thread of 300 of them all done exactly the same. Notice the procedure is the same for all tanks, yet they present for different invasions

What seems like it would be harmful is in fact a lifespan increaser for reef tanks bc it leaves them so clean

Don't modify any aspect of the work at all, since it's reef tank surgery you must copy exactly as above to be safe including the rinse verification step shown over and over

 

[brandon429]

If anyone reading does a rip clean post it here so we can see if it's good enough, thorough enough, to be in that best of the best thread. If not, if it's a 98% job we'll put it in the bulk collection

the hint is anyone attempting should do a best of the best routine. What separates a decent rip clean from Olympic gold rip clean is that medal winners have a tank so clear for the after picture you can't even tell there's water in the tank. Things look hovering

A 98% rinse is 2% cloudy on the after pic because they either short changed the sand rinse or they didn't wash out and dry the bare cleaned tank before reassembly, those jobs get a two finger hand clap

 

[vetteguy53081]

Okay so I’m far from an expert, but to me this looks like the diatoms I saw in my tank shortly after cycle. I think it’s tricky distinguishing them. I also believe that diatoms sometimes disappear at night and come back the next day. I looked around a bit and I’m reading that if you disturb the sandbed, diatoms will separate and Dino’s will clump together. I also read you can test by pulling a sample out of the tank and running it through a paper towel. Maybe give this article a read. I believe correctly identifying the issue is the most important thing here. You don’t want to treat the wrong thing and cause more issues.

Diatoms vs Dinos

Ive had worse than this and siphoned the sand and added bacteria a few days and reduced white light intensity and beat it. Light is a food source as is inorganics. If your tank is near a window, this will also be a contributor

 

[woodyarmadillo]

Algae Identification

Any opinions on what type of algae this is growing on my rocks and sand bed?

www.reef2reef.com

Study that set of 7 rip cleans for the win, it is indeed the safest route because it preps your tank against tradeoff invasions

That's exactly why we rinse in tap, unlimited thorough rinsing then final rinse with saltwater or ro di last step. Other methods kill this invasion in the tank and sink its mass down into the sand to be used as substrate for dinos or hair algae or cyano, a rip clean is healthy for any reef. That's seven above, we have another thread of 300 of them all done exactly the same. Notice the procedure is the same for all tanks, yet they present for different invasions

What seems like it would be harmful is in fact a lifespan increaser for reef tanks bc it leaves them so clean

Don't modify any aspect of the work at all, since it's reef tank surgery you must copy exactly as above to be safe including the rinse verification step shown over and over

I freakin’ love you Brandon. In a forum filled with confusing information and lots of “experts” with completely opposing opinions, you are actually doing the work to capture the science and actively spreading it to those that need it.

 

[brandon429]

A customization would be using prime or bottle bacteria or testing for ammonia, we never do that for specific reasons. Anyone who owns a seneye is welcome to test for ammonia afterwards, anyone using non digital test kits is 100% certain to get a misread and cause them to reactively dump things in the water that change chemistry for no need or benefit

Copy one of the jobs for the win, don't worry about tap water

 

[brandon429]

Notice we never ID any invasions either, lol it would not change the plan at all. If you had spores from Mars as the invader, same procedure

 

[Troylee]

A customization would be using prime or bottle bacteria or testing for ammonia, we never do that for specific reasons. Anyone who owns a seneye is welcome to test for ammonia afterwards, anyone using non digital test kits is 100% certain to get a misread and cause them to reactively dump things in the water that change chemistry for no need or benefit

Copy one of the jobs for the win, don't worry about tap water

I hosed my sand in the 275 and straight in the display it went.. no rodi rinse or saltwater haha! No issues.. Sps didn’t even flinch! Tap water sand and 7 hours out of water

 

[brandon429]

This is the exact method I use to cheat my pico into being the oldest pico reef on earth. If there were no rip cleans it wouldn't have made it past the hair algae challenge of 2009. I'm not good enough to reef without them yet I don't care

All I care about is packed in corals, laser clean, every year possible and rip cleans provide exactly that until someone invents a way not to need them *that works for others*

That's exactly the problem with today's best methods, the ability to get the same results for others. Rip cleans give everyone a laser skip cycle restart, then you try to change things to avoid needing to rip again

I could never figure that last part out, still I don't mind at all

 

[woodyarmadillo]

Notice we never ID any invasions either, lol it would not change the plan at all. If you had spores from Mars as the invader, same procedure

So this is the first I’ve heard of this. First you taught me how to properly cycle my tank in 10 days, now you’ve taught me how to fix an algae outbreak quickly, what other deep web reef secrets do you have?

Edit- started reading through that thread and my mind is blown, I’ll definitely be doing a rip clean at some point. I’ll do my best to study the work and be thorough.

 

[TopClamSkoo]

I hosed my sand in the 275 and straight in the display it went.. no rodi rinse or saltwater haha! No issues.. Sps didn’t even flinch! Tap water sand and 7 hours out of water

Wait.. so I'm confused. Using prime and such what others described?
Huh?
I thought all u need to do is transfer all rocks and animals to a 5 gallon bucket.
Then rinse the sand in the tank. Let it dry out? Then put all occupants back in right?
What's the exact steps? Someone also mentioned a thread about a rip clean with many successes.
Thanks! Wow! This is awesome!
I never thought to do a rip clean since all my other tanks in the past didn't have much issues with cyano, dino, and diatoms.. don't know what I did other than what I'm doing now.. but presently I have this problem...

 

[woodyarmadillo]

Wait.. so I'm confused. Using prime and such what others described?
Huh?
I thought all u need to do is transfer all rocks and animals to a 5 gallon bucket.
Then rinse the sand in the tank. Let it dry out? Then put all occupants back in right?
What's the exact steps? Someone also mentioned a thread about a rip clean with many successes.
Thanks! Wow! This is awesome!
I never thought to do a rip clean since all my other tanks in the past didn't have much issues with cyano, dino, and diatoms.. don't know what I did other than what I'm doing now.. but presently I have this problem...

When I was talking about prime earlier, I was talking about the people that use tap water as their tank water supply every time they do water changes. They use prime to remove chlorine (I would not use tap water as my tanks water and would only use RODI, I was just saying that some people have done it, and it usually leads to problems). You won’t need prime. Just use tap water to rinse your sand.

yeah I would pull up that thread that @brandon429 linked and spend a good amount of time studying it before you proceed. You’re going to move your inhabitants to a tub, remove the sand from your tank and rinse in a bucket outside with tap water for hours, clean that aquarium up like brand new and then reconstruct. I’m sure there are steps I’m missing so study that thread thoroughly.

 

[Troylee]

Wait.. so I'm confused. Using prime and such what others described?
Huh?
I thought all u need to do is transfer all rocks and animals to a 5 gallon bucket.
Then rinse the sand in the tank. Let it dry out? Then put all occupants back in right?
What's the exact steps? Someone also mentioned a thread about a rip clean with many successes.
Thanks! Wow! This is awesome!
I never thought to do a rip clean since all my other tanks in the past didn't have much issues with cyano, dino, and diatoms.. don't know what I did other than what I'm doing now.. but presently I have this problem...

What you got planned here will work out great! It’s basically that simple… you can read the Rio clean threads and that’s what it’s all about.. some people are fighting hair algae so they take a few more steps and scrub their rocks.

 

[TopClamSkoo]

What you got planned here will work out great! It’s basically that simple… you can read the Rio clean threads and that’s what it’s all about.. some people are fighting hair algae so they take a few more steps and scrub their rocks.

understood! thanks everyone! this is great! luckily my rocks and tank are pretty clean so i dont need to worry about scrubbing anything. I do have a bunch of sponges and such growing in my AIO filtration in the back where it doesnt get light... I hope there is not a die off on those while i am cleaning out the sand.. but oh well if they do. if theyre not helping me clean out the dino/diatom of whatever the heck it is... then oh well lol!

 

[TopClamSkoo]

BTW... how do ya'll feel about going bare bottom after I do a rip clean? throw the sand away and just clean the tank like heck before i pour new water and animals/rock back in?

 

[woodyarmadillo]

BTW... how do ya'll feel about going bare bottom after I do a rip clean? throw the sand away and just clean the tank like heck before i pour new water and animals/rock back in?

From what I understand, it’s a lot more challenging. All of that sand is great surface area for beneficial bacteria. I also read in there that your beneficial bacteria won’t die when you rinse the sand out and it won’t undo your cycle so that’s good. From what I know, I wouldn’t recommend going bare bottom unless you are an expert and have a lot of rock for surface area but others can chime in.