16 month old (new to me) tank, algae ID please

Steve089 · Sep 28, 2020

set up this IM Nuvo 20 last friday. was told the tank was 16 months old. from what I can see, there appears to be dead GHA all over the rock and some new greenish/brown algae forming. also will mention that when cleaning out the sandbed/setting up the tank, I siphoned out a lot of stuff that looked like brown slime, was lots of small chunky bits, like rice crispy size. finally. pulled off 3 little bubble algae that were forming on a frag (glad i caught that). I plan on providing testing #s tomorrow after I test for the first time. didnt come with any CUC, so I currently have 2 cerith snails and 2 hermits that I transferred from another tank

my question is, can you please help me ID what’s on the rock currently? I’m thinking about taking the rock out and scrubbing it with a brush in some tank water to get some of the nasties off. ID below:

Ajayabb · Sep 28, 2020

I had the same debris growing on my LR. Turned out to be the precursor to a very stubborn Dino outbreak for me. I pulled the rock and scrubbed it but I was never able to rid the tank . I eventually had to tear down my tank. If you can grab a water sample and check under a microscope we can help ID

Steve089 · Sep 28, 2020

heres what I got! pulled off a tuft of the stuff in question and made a slide with the water drop that fell off. green stuff is on 4x, smaller stuff is on 40x, high as it goes

did not observe a whole lot of activity/movement, just occasionally small clear organisms swimming alone

ScottR · Sep 28, 2020

Google “diatom microscope” for some images and see if it matches. Are you using tap or RODI water or something else?

Steve089 · Sep 28, 2020

using RODI from a new BRS 4 stage and I will for sure google and see if I can find a match

edit, just found this guy moving around, brown long oval shape, theres 2 in the bottom pic...diatoms?

Steve089 · Sep 28, 2020

additional things: RODI unit used on the tank with old owner (BRS 3 stage) looked like the media had never been changed (one chamber was tan colored from buildup). the filter sock was absolutely filthy when I checked it, was informed that it hadn’t been changed in a while, and no skimmer was ran. also no CUC.

so if it does turn out to be diatoms, which after googling vids im 99% sure it is, then it makes sense based on past poor husbandry/maintenance practices.