Nuisance Algae ID Guide. Red Slime, Cyano, Cyanobacteria. Green Film Algae, Film Algae. Green Hair Algae. Green Turf Algae. Bryopsis pennata and B. plumosa. Bubble Algae, Valonia. Lobophora. Blue Green Cyano.
Almost sure to appear in a new system, diatoms are some of the most abundant organisms on earth. They usually surface in the aquarium as a brown powdery like substance, within a week or so after a tank finishes its cycle. Diatoms feed on available silicates in your system and will run their course in time. Similarly, because they feed on silicates, anytime you add new sand, rock or something plastic they can pop up.
Manual Removal: Diatoms are easily wiped from the glass with a mag float, a turkey baster or a toothbrush can access other areas of the tank. Be prepared for them to re-establish themselves quickly, they are likely to be able to resettle and have exponential growth rates.
Clean Up Crew: Ceriths, Nerites and Trochus and Astraea snails are effective at removing diatoms, as well as the algae species that usually replace them as the silicates in your system are depleted.
your gonna find algae type have some natural progression. Already mentioned diatoms show up first.
Maturity: maybe 6mos to the 1yr mark; You wanna reach the stage where your glass coating is now light green (perhaps every 48-72 hrs) and crawling with zillions of pods (micro herbivores) scooting all over the glass; your turbos making obvious trails in the soft growth. Growing concurrently are lil annoying pink & purple spots that show up within hours after glass cleaning. There is also a hard to remove dark green type of algae that shows up under good conditions.
you can speed up maturity a lil by adding even small pieces of genuine “mature rock“ or pest free macro algae’s... Some bad and good “bugs” also come in slowly with half cleaned frags
See if you can blow diatoms loose with a turkey baster. IF you can. . good.... do so and follow with a water change. Reduce white light intensity and add tubo-astrea-trochus-nerite snails.
Its due in part with silicates and will dissipate in time
The algae that I see growing is normal and is a necessary step to your rocks maturing and getting to the purple coralline stage. Your tank also looks very new still...sand is still bright white and the majority of your rocks appear to have little to no algae on them. Algae is not necessarily a bad thing in a saltwater aquarium...it's actually a good indicator that your tank is moving in the right direction.