Diatom Bloom? Skimmer?

[Beausoleiljacob]

Hi Reef 2 Reef,
I have a 60 gallon cube that has been set up for about 2 months now. After leaving my tank for 2 days without any scrubbing of glass, I have noticed that brown hair like algae to is growing on the sand bed and the most on my overflow. Nevertheless why does your glass get so dirty if I don't scrub it for a day. Anyway what can I do to fix this issue! Thanks.

Also I have noticed that my skimmer is barely pulling anything but bubbles out? Any idea why? Before it was pulling out a real dark skimmate.

Attached is a picture!

 

[hybridazn]

Sounds like diatoms. Keep up with water changes, and you say the skimmer still makes bubbles but isn't pulling skimmate?

 

[Beausoleiljacob]

Sounds like diatoms. Keep up with water changes, and you say the skimmer still makes bubbles but isn't pulling skimmate?

Correct. It nearly overflowed with bubbles just no liquid. Also, is it okay to scrape algae out into display tank?l before water change?

 

[hybridazn]

Yes that's what I would do. Lower the level in the skimmer to give the bubbles more time to pull the Skimmate out before flowing into the cup

 

[Beausoleiljacob]

Yes that's what I would do. Lower the level in the skimmer to give the bubbles more time to pull the Skimmate out before flowing into the cup

How far below the neck of the cup would you say? Below the neck of the skimmer? Is it okay to clean even before a water change?

 

[Beausoleiljacob]

I have also realized that this brown algae now is all over not only my overflow but my rock work, and part of my sand bed. What should I do? Nevertheless there are these green specs of algae on my glass what are they?

 

[Beausoleiljacob]

 

[cnseekatz]

Algae is a common, natural element in reef tanks. There is no possible way to have a living setup without it. That being said, one of our primary struggles in this hobby is balancing a tank with enough nutrients to allow fish and corals to thrive, and not enough to allow pest algae to get out of hand.

Just need to work on optimizing your filtration (mechanical, natural or even chemical), not overfeeding, and having a solid clean-up crew.

 

[dacianb]

New tank syndrome? After cycle is finished all tanks goes through such algae bloom. Depend by how you cycled it, 60 days may be the time for algae bloom
Scrubbing glass everyday is not a solution. Leave it finish its cycle and then monitor nitrates and see how things are going.