Can anyone tell me if this is diatoms or dinos?

[daryl213]

Can anyone tell me if this is diatoms on my dry rock or another form of algae like Dino or something?

 

[Lavey29]

Looks like diatoms. How old is the tank?

 

[daryl213]

Looks like diatoms. How old is the tank?

The tank is about 6 weeks old now. So I am super new to this. Sorry for not providing any parameters but I got worried when googling photos lol

 

[Lavey29]

The tank is about 6 weeks old now. So I am super new to this. Sorry for not providing any parameters but I got worried when googling photos lol

So it's just naturally occurring diatoms in a new tank. It would behoove you to leave lights off the first for months before adding corals to allow your tank to develop biodiversity and microfauna. Then when you add coral and turn the lights on your ugly phases will be much more manageable.

 

[daryl213]

So it's just naturally occurring diatoms in a new tank. It would behoove you to leave lights off the first for months before adding corals to allow your tank to develop biodiversity and microfauna. Then when you add coral and turn the lights on your ugly phases will be much more manageable.

Okay thank you so much for this information I will do that for sure! I will keep my lights off! I don’t plan on adding corals until 6-8 months in cause I heard adding them too early can cause lots of problems. Do you have any other advise as to help make the ugly phase go by quicker?

 

[Hot2na]

Get an algae scrubber and watch the ugly phase slowly disappear , healthier fish and inverts as well.

 

[eqbal9947]

Looks like Diatoms.
If they blow of very easily its most likely Diatoms.
Be careful, I got rid of my Diatoms and left a cushy tank for Dino's to take over. Keep your nutrients up.

 

[KonradTO]

I mean if it's diatoms they are actually good for your tank in my understanding. They will fade naturally, if I were you I would take this occasion to seed the tank with copepods. If I only could go back to my diatom phase I would love to sample some and grow them as a phyto for fighting dinos

 

[Paul B]

Just leave the tank alone. It is normal in your tank.

 

[Lavey29]

Okay thank you so much for this information I will do that for sure! I will keep my lights off! I don’t plan on adding corals until 6-8 months in cause I heard adding them too early can cause lots of problems. Do you have any other advise as to help make the ugly phase go by quicker?

It gives you time to complete your fish stock. It allows you to learn about your tanks parameters so you get better with keeping the environment stable when you decide to add corals. You can seed pods to add biodiversity but if you are going to wait like that then look into getting a couple pieces of live ocean rock. This will do wonders for your tank and really Jumpstart your biome. You will still have ugly phases the first year but these steps can make them very manageable.