Brown algae on my sand bed that always comes back after weekly maintenance

[MikeyD1182]

I use good rodi water for ato and making fresh saltwater with fritz pro and after a weekly water change and a sandbed siphoning everything looks good for a few hours and then I notice areas that the brown algae stuff is back again and then over the next few days it becomes more and more until the next water change etc. It looks like there’s more during the day then at night but it is still clearly there during the dark hours. This stuff is only on the sandbed not on the rocks or corals and I get a some on the areas of the glass close to the sand bed. Here’s some up close pictures with the blues, uv & violet off and the whites all the way up on my prime hds to get more of a real look on the algae. Without getting a microscope can anyone who just knows by sight if this is leaning more towards diatoms or dinoflagellates and from there i’ll assess whether or not to get a microscope (if it’s in fact dinoflagellates) to find out which specific strain I’m dealing with (if needed) and then what method I should use to eradicate this nuisance. Any help is appreciated.

 

[MikeyD1182]

My 75 Gallon tank consists of 2 clowns, 4 chromis, 1 scooter blenny, several astrea snails, a banded trochus, a Mexican turbo, a lot of stomatellas and bunch of favias, platygyra, chalices, birdsnest, montis some shrooms some zoas and some blastos. I’ve had no issues with the fish snails or corals and I was dosing seachem reef fusion 1 & 2 along with magnesium and some acropower which I have stopped within the last week. I have a reef octopus 150ss skimmer and I run a brs reactor with a bag of chemipure blue in it and I change my short filter sock in the middle of the week and at the water change.

 

[COreef8]

Unless it is in plague proportions with clear bubbly snot strings, it's difficult to diagnose dino's from a picture, but this sand does look similar to mine when I had dinos. If it clears up more at night, that also points to dino's.

Both can bloom from a water change depending on the salt and what container you're mixing in but this does look pretty dark to be diatoms from a single wc (assuming the sand was white before).

As you stated though, you can't know for sure without a microscope but you don't have to spend a fortune on one to ID algae. I got one off amazon for $11 and it helped me clearly ID the strain of dino's I was fighting and it's immensely helpful when I see something new pops up in my tank.

 

[MikeyD1182]

Alright cool thanks for the reply, I will get a microscope and post pics of what it shows and then maybe someone can help with what strain of dinoflagellates it is if it actually is that and then how to combat it.

 

[MikeyD1182]

Is there anything I should or shouldn’t do while I’m waiting on the microscope in the mail? Also what kind of cheaper microscope should I look for?

 

[MikeyD1182]

Unless it is in plague proportions with clear bubbly snot strings, it's difficult to diagnose dino's from a picture, but this sand does look similar to mine when I had dinos. If it clears up more at night, that also points to dino's.

Both can bloom from a water change depending on the salt and what container you're mixing in but this does look pretty dark to be diatoms from a single wc (assuming the sand was white before).

As you stated though, you can't know for sure without a microscope but you don't have to spend a fortune on one to ID algae. I got one off amazon for $11 and it helped me clearly ID the strain of dino's I was fighting and it's immensely helpful when I see something new pops up in my tank.

Is this good enough??

 

[COreef8]

If you think it might be dinos, then this forum is full of information, much of which is anecdotal, but it probably has the most up to date information available on fighting dinos. It may only be marginally useful before you get a positive ID since a lot of the techniques are specific to the particular strain that you have. Fair warning, the thread is close to 400 pages.

Here's the one I got: AmScope

Here was a video I took of that microscope with my phone. Not too bad for $11!

 

[MikeyD1182]

These lil stick looking things move around slowly. Any idea what these are?

 

[aqua_code]

This looks kinda similar:

Stellate colony of diatoms, Nitzschia species. Diatoms are an algae...

Stellate colony of diatoms, Nitzschia species. Diatoms are an algae but contain yellow-brown chlorplasts instead of the more typical green chloroplasts of other plants. Live specimen. Wet mount, 10X...

www.istockphoto.com

diatoms

 

[MikeyD1182]

@aqua_code Will either of these help and is 1 better then the other? I have a 75 gallon mixed reef tank with about 10 gallons of sump water. I noticed the aqua ultraviolet doesn’t have any indicator that the uh bulb is on or any power light so idk if it’s better to get the Coralife twist 18 watt over the other.

 

[aqua_code]

I recommend only buying a UV sterilizer brand listed on BRS. They test them really well and you will have less problems. This might work, but it's not as nice as the ones on there.

 

[merereef]

@aqua_code Will either of these help and is 1 better then the other? I have a 75 gallon mixed reef tank with about 10 gallons of sump water. I noticed the aqua ultraviolet doesn’t have any indicator that the uh bulb is on or any power light so idk if it’s better to get the Coralife twist 18 watt over the other.

Il be honest this would work for mainly dinos what you have is diatoms as meantioned above. Dont waste the miney leave it alone and it should disappear on its own. You could add a conch snail that will do great job of diatoms

 

[aqua_code]

Yea, It's not worth getting a cheap uv sterilizer just for diatoms. If you get one, might as well plumb it into a reef of that size.

 

[MikeyD1182]

How long does it take to get rid of diatoms, in my previous tank I had it for what seemed like forever but it was around 2 months and I quit reefing after that and now I’m back into again and this crap is here again.

 

[merereef]

How long does it take to get rid of diatoms, in my previous tank I had it for what seemed like forever but it was around 2 months and I quit reefing after that and now I’m back into again and this crap is here again.

Be patient its just the tank maturing... dont disturb the sand and blow off rocks and use filter floss for a bit till the rocks hardly have any distrtus blowing off them... again dont disturb the sand the more you do the longer it will take.. and try not to do too many water changes

 

[MikeyD1182]

Alright I will leave the sand, glass and rock work alone. Ive been doing about 20% water changes weekly and dosing small amounts of acropower for some of my corals but I stopped the acropower last week. Should I maybe switch to 10% weekly water changes or 20% every 2 weeks? After I’ve done water changes and vacuumed the sand bed the brown sand was gone but it was back within a day in a small amount and then it desperate on the sand and it’s been a never ending cycle.

 

[merereef]

Alright I will leave the sand, glass and rock work alone. Ive been doing about 20% water changes weekly and dosing small amounts of acropower for some of my corals but I stopped the acropower last week. Should I maybe switch to 10% weekly water changes or 20% every 2 weeks? After I’ve done water changes and vacuumed the sand bed the brown sand was gone but it was back within a day in a small amount and then it desperate on the sand and it’s been a never ending cycle.

Good you have stopped dosing acro power.. you can clean the glass thats fine but dont touch the rocks or the sand.. when you do water changes change it to every 2 weeks but do 10% instead. Trust me your system will be fine. If you do notice your corals dont look right then do 10% every week but again dont disturb the sand or the rocks. Another thing be careful when using any phosphate media if you are running it run it extremely slowly and use very small amounts because if the the phosphates drop too quickly then you will get the dreaded dinos. Keep us updated but get a conch snail i added one a few fews ago and ive noticed it leaving clean white trails over the brown coloured sand

 

[MikeyD1182]

Ok will do thanks for the help I really appreciate it. 1 more thing to mention, I’m running chemipure blue in its bag inside a brs reactor because I have nowhere else to put it in my sump. It has a mj1200 on it all the way open or should I use the dial to turn down the flow on it to less running through it?

 

[merereef]

Soif the tank is new

Ok will do thanks for the help I really appreciate it. 1 more thing to mention, I’m running chemipure blue in its bag inside a brs reactor because I have nowhere else to put it in my sump. It has a mj1200 on it all the way open or should I use the dial to turn down the flow on it to less running through it?

Its all good ask as many questions as you want no one will mind we all here to help defo run it slower...

 

[merereef]

Ok will do thanks for the help I really appreciate it. 1 more thing to mention, I’m running chemipure blue in its bag inside a brs reactor because I have nowhere else to put it in my sump. It has a mj1200 on it all the way open or should I use the dial to turn down the flow on it to less running through it?

Just remember with diatoms it gets worse before it gets better. So just embrace it.. keep posting pics of your tank every few days on here if you can to monitor