Algae broom from broken timer

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Mebbid

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Ugh, I hooked up a timer to my reef because I was going out of town but I should have double checked because it wasn't working properly and this is the result. Thankfully my remaining coral wasn't torched. What would you guys suggest I do next to clear it up? This is a 90g tank.



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Is it just on the glass? Couple big wc's would get you back in check I imagine. My guess is you keep your params pretty steady so I imagine a good cleaning of the glass then wc and you'd be back on track.
 
Is it just on the glass? Couple big wc's would get you back in check I imagine. My guess is you keep your params pretty steady so I imagine a good cleaning of the glass then wc and you'd be back on track.

Nope, that's definitely not the glass, that's the first thing I tried. It's suspended in the water.
 
Do you run a skimmer on this system?
Edit: you could also try a blackout for a couple days, your corals should be fine with it.
 
Why is it cloudy? What exactly happened? I would assume a couple 25-50% water changes and run carbon would be a start...


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Looks like a bacterial bloom.

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Looks like a bacterial bloom.

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That's what I thought at first but it's definitely got a brown tint which leads me to think it's diatoms more than bacteria. Coupling the color of the water with the fact that the light was on for days straight it makes perfect sense.

Why is it cloudy? What exactly happened? I would assume a couple 25-50% water changes and run carbon would be a start...


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I hooked up a timer to the tank and went on a short vacation. It wasn't working properly so the lights were on almost 4 days straight.

Do you run a skimmer on this system?
Edit: you could also try a blackout for a couple days, your corals should be fine with it.

I'm doing water changes but I'm wary about trying to do a black out at the moment because bad things can happen when algae dies en masse. I don't want to create an ammonia spike or cause the oxygen in the tank to drop. Sadly, I don't have a skimmer due to financial constraints but I am going to try to get my hands on one soon.

I have 30g of water that's just about done mixing so I'll be able to do a fairly large water change to see how that changes things.
 
I never knew that diatoms could be free floating in the water. I thought it just grew on sand, rocks, and glass.

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