Is it diatoms?

[Quentin05]

Hi folks,

New to R2R and learning a lot from you guys. Thanks a lot.

Started my cycle 4 days ago and spotted these orange spots on the sand tonight.

Can you guys confirm those are diatoms?
If I understand well its a good sign so I would be happy about it, just need an expert eye.

The orange is hard to spot with the blue light the camera freaks out but with my own eyes it stands out.

Thanks

 

[ReefRusty]

Does it disappear when lights go off? Any pictures under white light?

 

[Coralsdaily]

+1 for white light picture. Hard to tell with the blue hue

 

[Lavey29]

You may want to consider running without lights for the first 3 or 4 months to minimize your ugly stages as your tank develops biodiversity. Fish don't need light it's only when you add corals.

 

[Coralsdaily]

You may want to consider running without lights for the first 3 or 4 months to minimize your ugly stages as your tank develops biodiversity. Fish don't need light it's only when you add corals.

+1, you don’t need light until there is coral

 

[Quentin05]

You may want to consider running without lights for the first 3 or 4 months to minimize your ugly stages as your tank develops biodiversity. Fish don't need light it's only when you add corals.

I heard so many articles and threads with people debating on that but here you seem to all agree on no light so I will take your advice. Also it saves on the electricity bill so..

I will try to take a better picture tonight. Yesterday I cleaned the glass and intentionally moved the sand around a little to see if the spots would reappear. I will let you know if they come back.

Thank you all

 

[ReefRusty]

It may decrease the ugliest but you will still get them. Using dry or live rock/sand?

Ugliest can appear at any stage weather it's 1 week old or 1 year old or potentially even older, but read up on all this info as R2R has loads of pages on this.

 

[Quentin05]

It may decrease the ugliest but you will still get them. Using dry or live rock/sand?

Ugliest can appear at any stage weather it's 1 week old or 1 year old or potentially even older, but read up on all this info as R2R has loads of pages on this.

Dry rock, live sand, started cycle 5 days ago with de tims bacteria and fritz ammonia fish less.
Yesterday ammonia dropped to 0.25 (from 2ppm) and nitrites went up to 1.5

I don t worry if it's only diatoms, just wanted the eye of an experienced reefer to confirm it is.

Thanks

 

[Quentin05]

It may decrease the ugliest but you will still get them. Using dry or live rock/sand?

Ugliest can appear at any stage weather it's 1 week old or 1 year old or potentially even older, but read up on all this info as R2R has loads of pages on this.

Here is a picture with no light this morning. It is not an invasion, just a start

 

[Lavey29]

I heard so many articles and threads with people debating on that but here you seem to all agree on no light so I will take your advice. Also it saves on the electricity bill so..

I will try to take a better picture tonight. Yesterday I cleaned the glass and intentionally moved the sand around a little to see if the spots would reappear. I will let you know if they come back.

Thank you all

I kept mine off for 3 months until first corals were added. I still had various ugly stages but they were very manageable. Main thing during lights off is developing stability with good water parameters. Weekly water changes, tank husbandry, etc... your tank will continue to develop biodiversity too.