Is this diatom?

[DragonMare23]

Hi everyone! I've only been in the saltwater hobby about a month now and started off with a stock oceanic biocube 29gal. 40lbs of live sand and about 25 lbs of reef saver rock. Livestock wise I have two small clowns and a small orange spot goby. I've come across my first problem now, and I think it's diatoms but I'm not 100% sure. So here I am asking for an ID of it and what you do to get rid of it. My LFS tested my well water and said it fine to mix my saltwater and top off water. only paramater that is high is nitrate at 40ppm. I did a 5gal water change last night and siphoned off the sand bed/ rock. And this is what it looks like today. I've been leaving the lights off, just turned it on for the pics and for feeding the fish. The water is cloudy white. Thanks for all your help!!!

 

[James M]

Welcome to reef2reef!!
You are entering the ugly stage of a new tank. Your best bet is to let the tank do it’s thing.

 

[Idoc]

Looks like diatoms... and makes sense with the theme for setup had been running! Blue them off the rocks with a turkey baster and siphon out of the sand. But, they are typically self-limiting while consuming silicates in your system.

 

[DragonMare23]

Welcome to reef2reef!!
You are entering the ugly stage of a new tank. Your best bet is to let the tank do it’s thing.

Thank you!

 

[DragonMare23]

Looks like diatoms... and makes sense with the theme for setup had been running! Blue them off the rocks with a turkey baster and siphon out of the sand. But, they are typically self-limiting while consuming silicates in your system.

Thank you!