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

[MikeyD1182]

Whites all the way up no red, green, uv, violet, royal blue or blue. A couple tiny parts have strings of slime maybe 5 or 6 strings that I can see when looking closely at my entire tanks sandbed.

 

[MikeyD1182]

Goes right along parts of the rock but not onto it and it doesn’t go on the corals either.

 

[MikeyD1182]

And what kind of conch snails should I add?

 

[merereef]

Whites all the way up no red, green, uv, violet, royal blue or blue. A couple tiny parts have strings of slime maybe 5 or 6 strings that I can see when looking closely at my entire tanks sandbed.

You reckon you can remove some of that slime and put it under your microscope?

 

[merereef]

And what kind of conch snails should I add?

Get any conch snail is fine. I have a strawberry conch. When you are buying one look for the long elephant like trunk they have that sucks on dirt those are the ones you want

 

[merereef]

These ones with the elephant like trunk

 

[MikeyD1182]

You reckon you can remove some of that slime and put it under your microscope?

I posted the pics from the microscope I got in the mail today on the 1st page of this post. Here’s the pic again.

 

[MikeyD1182]

The red circles were moving around slowly.

 

[merereef]

I posted the pics from the microscope I got in the mail today on the 1st page of this post. Here’s the pic again.

Was that from the slime ? If it is then dont worry its diatoms

 

[MikeyD1182]

That was from water sucked out directly above the slime and maybe some of the slime got into the Kent sea squirt but it’s hard because the sand gets sucked up and then the slime dissipates into the water and it becomes a dark colored water.

 

[brandon429]

I want to show you one time where diatoms do not win, and it’s free.

skim before and after pics, diatoms in diatoms out. All of it at once is the key, the exact opposite of what the masses would do runs a thread with that many work examples.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

The best way to prepare your sand for use in a transferred reef tank, an upgraded reef tank, a reef tank under invasion etc is to put the sand in sections in a bucket and TAP WATER rinse it outside over and over with the garden hose until all the silt / waste is ejected, expect hours of work per...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[aqua_code]

Dosing OceanMagik and Microbacter7 helped me with dinos. Also got some astrea snails. If you want a cheaper solution that might help.

 

[ReefHomieJon]

Yea I got some diatoms too on my sand bed and I hate it. The rocks had it too but the turbo snails I have love eating it off the rocks but don’t really mess with it on the sand bed. So the conch snail will eat it off the sand? I gotta get me a couple. My tank is only 6 weeks old. Btw, what causes the “end “ of the diatom blooms?

 

[aqua_code]

diatoms and dinoflagellates (dinos) are similar but very different in treatment. Diatoms blooms will end once your aquarium has an established biofilter. Conch's should do fine mixing up your sand and keeping the diatoms from growing. Your tank will benefit from dosing phytoplankton and microbacter7 as well.

Make sure to run carbon and use rodi water.

 

[ReefHomieJon]

diatoms and dinoflagellates (dinos) are similar but very different in treatment. Diatoms blooms will end once your aquarium has an established biofilter. Conch's should do fine mixing up your sand and keeping the diatoms from growing. Your tank will benefit from dosing phytoplankton and microbacter7 as well.

Make sure to run carbon and use rodi water.

I dose phytoplankton to feed my pods but not the microbacter7

 

[ReefHomieJon]

I dose phytoplankton to feed my pods but not the microbacter7

And I use to/do but no carbon

 

[aqua_code]

Carbon will filter out impurities and help with phosphate a little. It will help with your diatom blooms. If you are using an aquaclear filter you can put it in there. Usually good to change once a month.

 

[Cbones1979]

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.

This looks like what I have. Was it diatoms? It dissipates when I blow the sand then comes back again.

will siphoning into a sock help?
Uv? Bacteria?

I don’t have the bubbly snot more like hair Filoments. My nitrates are 3ppm and phonosates are .12