diatom like brown alga on sand

[h20addict]

Tank has been up for around 6 months. Im Daily having a light brown film or algae build on the sand.
Sand was new, rock iv had.
T5 lighting, running carbon and purgin through a reactor
75g internal overflow 20 long sump.
Nitrate 0
Ph 8.4
Phos .2
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0

 

[erichm20]

Could be silicates from the sand maybe

 

[h20addict]

For this long? I even soaked the sand for a week prior

 

[JonathanG]

I had/have something similar. I would stir the sand around and the brown would be back the next day. I got rid of it by adding an orange stripe goby and a Hector's goby, they sift the sand and eat the algae, they do a great job of keeping the top sand clean.

 

[Michaelbknudsen]

How is your flow?

 

[h20addict]

Iv had my eye on an orange stripe and pistol combo.
For flow, Mag seven return,
Two ocean stream 500gph powerheads and a pico 180gph directed at the frag rack

 

[erichm20]

The goby will definitely keep the sand nice and clean. I had one and he worked constantly until he jumped out. Ceriths will help too.

 

[h20addict]

Iv got certh, nassurius, astrea, maragrita and turbo snails. Even a few red footed chonches and an emerald crab in the sump

 

[erichm20]

Well I've read diatom blooms will come for no apparent reason and be gone just a fast. But to have it all the time then there must be something else going on to feed the algae...
How often do you change the water and how much? How long are your lights on? How often and how much do you feed? How old are the bulbs? (was the light fixture new when you bought it?) Do have A refugium? If so what's in it? I see you run carbon and purigen in a reactor maybe it needs to be changed? Do you have a skimmer? The list goes on and on...

It's all about what's going into and out of the tank. Go through everything one by one until you see whats out of place.

 

[h20addict]

Iv had the fixture for sum.time, a six bulb nova extreme pro. Three bulbs are 9+ months and three are only 3+ months. Lights run about ten hrs
Have three new ati bulbs on the way,
I do ten to fifteen gallons every week.
Yes i run a eshoops 100 in sump skimmer. Just changed the purgin and carbin this week.
I am just running cheato and ljve rock in a breeder basket in the sump at the moment.

 

[erichm20]

Ok all those things look good. What about top off water- is it rodi? Have you recently used a different food or dosing anything new? Are you feeding more than every other day and when you feed do you see pieces of food go all the way to the bottom?

I had to cut back on frequency of times I feed and amount of food I give.

 

[erichm20]

Also can you post a picture?

 

[h20addict]

Yes toping off with rodi, spectra with dual tds, reading zero.
I had been feeding coral frenzy twice a week but have since stoped.
Also had been dosing calcium, strotiom and purple up alternating but stoped that also

 

[erichm20]

Hmmm it is interesting you mention feeding coral frenzy because I started with that about a month ago and have also had a bloom of algae...

But I upgraded from a 55 just two months ago so I didn't know if maybe it was that.

 

[h20addict]

This is the most recent photo i have, hard to see the algae.
Thats why i have stopped using it..

 

[erichm20]

Wow you're tank looks great! I can't really see any on this photo lol it's certainly not a serious problem.

 

[h20addict]

I will try and get a picture of it tonight, i haven't touched the tank in 24hrs or so

 

[h20addict]

A shot from both sides....
grr bangs head on tank and goes to get siphon..

 

[erichm20]

Ok yea it looks like diatoms to me. How long ago did you stop feeding coral frenzy? How often do you feed the fish?

 

[h20addict]

The fish get feed every two or three days, and iv cut back on the amount in the past few weeks.
Coral frenzy has been over two weeks and two water changes ago.
About to do another.