Diatoms or Dinos?

[Symplistik]

Good morning everyone,

Yet another newbie reefer here looking for some expert advise and help. My tank has been up and running for about 18months +/-. Lately I have been at battle with brown on my sandbed. I stir it up daily, I siphon it out weekly with water changes and it just keeps returning. They receed at night but then come back hard daily

Any suggestions, direction or help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Tank Details:

• Waterbox 25 Peninsula AIO
• Chamber 1 - Filter floss / 9W UV Sterilizer
• Chamber 2 - Phosguard / Chemiclean / Purigen (Tunze 9001 skimmer recently removed)
• Chamber 3 - ATO / Heater / Return pump
• Flow - Nero 3 pump
• Light - XR15 Gen 5 blue (Running AB+ on reduced schedule & acclimation mode)
• CUC - 1 blue leg hermit (Others have died) Lots of Astrea snails which are multiplying
• Phosphates - Measuring 0
• Nitrates - Measuring 0
• RO Buddie W/ DI 25GPD
• 10-15% water change weekly or bi-weekly

 

[twentyleagues]

White light pics would be needed/better, better yet microscope pics of the brown stuff. Looks like diatoms to me but thats a hard thing to tell in the current pics.

 

[Symplistik]

White light pics would be needed/better, better yet microscope pics of the brown stuff. Looks like diatoms to me but thats a hard thing to tell in the current pics.

Thank you for the reply. Yes it is my mistake taking the photo's late into the afternoon. I will try to get better white light photos after work.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Is it on the rock or just on the sand bed? Do you notice any bubbles that appear when lights are on but go away when the lights go off?

 

[CHSUB]

18 months and tank looks empty…sorry. Don’t care about nutrients or anything else but reef systems are an attempt to mimic nature and only do best when they replicate what Mother Nature does….ultimate biodiversity and wars over real estate. There is no way you are going to keep algae out of your tank the way it looks unless you starve everything; manually remove detritus and algae almost daily forever is your only option unless you start filling it up.

For example my aquarium is also about 18-19 months old

 

[Symplistik]

Is it on the rock or just on the sand bed? Do you notice any bubbles that appear when lights are on but go away when the lights go off?

it is not on the rocks. Just sand bed, fogs glass and on pumps / return nozzle. Seems to recede slightly after the lights go out. No bubbles.

 

[Symplistik]

18 months and tank looks empty…sorry. Don’t care about nutrients or anything else but reef systems are an attempt to mimic nature and only do best when they replicate what Mother Nature does….ultimate biodiversity and wars over real estate. There is no way you are going to keep algae out of your tank the way it looks unless you starve everything; manually remove detritus and algae almost daily forever is your only option unless you start filling it up.

For example my aquarium is also about 18-19 months old

Appreciate the feedback and reply. Yes it is quite empty. After returning to the hobby after 15 years away a lot has changed. I have been taking baby steps and wanting to attempt to do everything right rather than spending hundreds on corals only to potentially lose some along the way.

 

[CHSUB]

Appreciate the feedback and reply. Yes it is quite empty. After returning to the hobby after 15 years away a lot has changed. I have been taking baby steps and wanting to attempt to do everything right rather than spending hundreds on corals only to potentially lose some along the way.

I understand …. nothing wrong with taking your time, however the “empty” aquarium is harder to manage, especially with algae, than a full one.

With regards to “a lot has changed”, not really only that everyone is now an expert after a week and most love giving advice and almost all of it is !

 

[Symplistik]

I understand …. nothing wrong with taking your time, however the “empty” aquarium is harder to manage, especially with algae, than a full one.

With regards to “a lot has changed”, not really only that everyone is now an expert after a week and most love giving advice and almost all of it is !

hahahaha. Thank you. I will be picking up some more frags in the coming weeks and continue to work on filling it up.