Help!!! What is this? Should I be worried??

[N8daGr8]

Of course im new to the hobby, my tanks is 4 months old. I’m running a 80 Gal redsea G2, with two reef led 90s, reef mat, skimmer and Red Sea reef spec carbon. I religiously do a 10% water change weekly and all my numbers have been steady. I think I understand the ugly phase but I don’t know how long it supposed to last. I syphon my sand every other week and within a few hours the brown crap come right back on my sand… what is it? And what do I do about it?
See pictures…

 

[splunty]

Looks like diatoms to me. Diatoms consume excess silicates in the tank. Assuming they are diatoms, most people leave them alone and they'll start to die off in a couple of weeks once their primary food source is depleted.

Don't try to clean them all out while they are still growing or you will just prolong that phase. Once they start to die off, siphon them out religiously and make sure your nitrates and Phosphates do not bottom out to zero.

Good luck!

 

[Jekyl]

Welcome to R2R!

Your ugly phase is just getting rolling. Mine was at its worst around months 7-11.

What CuC do you currently have?

 

[Merge_595]

Dinoflagellates common when starting a Reef tank completely clean(no live rock or seeded media). Siphoning a waste of time. Add bacteria & phytoplankton & give it a few weeks let nature run it's course

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Dinoflagellates common when starting a Reef tank completely clean(no live rock or seeded media). Siphoning a waste of time. Add bacteria & phytoplankton & give it a few weeks let nature run it's course

Those aren't dinos

 

[N8daGr8]

Looks like diatoms to me. Diatoms consume excess silicates in the tank. Assuming they are diatoms, most people leave them alone and they'll start to die off in a couple of weeks once their primary food source is depleted.

Don't try to clean them all out while they are still growing or you will just prolong that phase. Once they start to die off, siphon them out religiously and make sure your nitrates and Phosphates do not bottom out to zero.

Good luck!

What do they look like when they start to die off?

 

[Merge_595]

Those aren't dinos

Did you ID them under a microscope?

 

[N8daGr8]

Did you ID them under a microscope?

No, what else could they be?

 

[N8daGr8]

Welcome to R2R!

Your ugly phase is just getting rolling. Mine was at its worst around months 7-11.

What CuC do you currently have?

Some turbo snails
Two couches
Two XL Nassarius snails( I’m sure I misspelled that)
Red and blue hermits

 

[Merge_595]

No, what else could they be?

Amazon.com

a.co

If you truly want to know this cheap microscope will come in handy. Otherwise we're all "guessing" tbh..regardless give the tank 1 year to go through it's stages..once your sponges population increases & healthy bacteria population increases your tank will eventually bloom. Sometimes it's best to just "do less" The more you mess with it you'll just create a different issue

 

[stewy14]

Those aren't dinos

If they aren’t, then tell us what they r…

 

[Merge_595]

Amazon.com

a.co

If you truly want to know this cheap microscope will come in handy. Otherwise we're all "guessing" tbh..regardless give the tank 1 year to go through it's stages..once your sponges population increases & healthy bacteria population increases your tank will eventually bloom. Sometimes it's best to just "do less" The more you mess with it you'll just create a different issue

I struggled too this was years & years of wanting to give up to finally reaching a goal

 

[splunty]

If they aren’t, then tell us what they r…

I wasn't the person who said these weren't dinos, but I did say they look like diatoms.

Dinos tend to cling to each other and have disgusting "filmy strings" that float off the surface in the current kind of like cyano. They also as far as I have ever seen never get that yellow-brown color (usually dark or reddish brown) and typically only show up in a tank where nutrients are bottomed out, usually after a diatom event. (Some dinos consume the diatoms. Yum.)

That said, they still look like diatoms to me. That doesn't mean they are. We're all guessing from a slightly out of focus picture and the colors may even be off.

What do they look like when they start to die off?

Hi there. I wish I knew how to answer that well other than they stop spreading. If you siphon some up and it doesn't grow back in a day or two, you're at the end of that phase and that's when you really should siphon it all out.

Regardless, don't panic. This is all normal for a young Reef tank.

 

[Jekyl]

Some turbo snails
Two couches
Two XL Nassarius snails( I’m sure I misspelled that)
Red and blue hermits

Might be time to bump it a bit. I always recommend reefcleaners.org

I'd stick the a package for around half your tank size since you already have some.

 

[stewy14]

I wasn't the person who said these weren't dinos, but I did say they look like diatoms.

Dinos tend to cling to each other and have disgusting "filmy strings" that float off the surface in the current kind of like cyano. They also as far as I have ever seen never get that yellow-brown color (usually dark or reddish brown) and typically only show up in a tank where nutrients are bottomed out, usually after a diatom event. (Some dinos consume the diatoms. Yum.)

That said, they still look like diatoms to me. That doesn't mean they are. We're all guessing from a slightly out of focus picture and the colors may even be off.



Hi there. I wish I knew how to answer that well other than they stop spreading. If you siphon some up and it doesn't grow back in a day or two, you're at the end of that phase and that's when you really should siphon it all out.

Regardless, don't panic. This is all normal for a young Reef tank.

I was replying to eyore...
ik u know what those r, u provided good feedback and all

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

If they aren’t, then tell us what they r…

D I A T O M S, as has already been said in other comments.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I was replying to eyore...
ik u know what those r, u provided good feedback and all

Insert eyeroll gif here

Why would I repeat what someone else already spelled out??