My tank is turning red and green now (with picture)

[djmpj2]

Short run down on my tank issues:

We were over run with brown diatoms. Tested the store bought salt water we were buying and found out it was loaded with Silicates and Phosphates. (Turns out LFS's R/O D/I system was busted).

Also found out we did this really dumb thing when we installed our canister filter 2 months ago. Never unpacked any of the filter media (it was still in plastic bags inside the canister).

We fixed the canister issue and put a phosphate sponge. This was on Saturday.

Water parameters have been good throughout. ammonia: 0, PH 8.3, Nitrite: 0 , Nitrates: 0, temp 80F, Salinity: 1.022.

Now our brown diatoms are turning very red and green. Is this normal? Is this still diatoms? Should we be doing anything else?

 

[electrikat]

with your silicates and phospates I would think it's maybe just standard green algae and cyanobacteria algae. Do some major water changes and maybe cut back on the number of hours you run your lights for a week or so. Give your clean up crew a chance to catch up. Maybe also cut back on the feeding to force them to start eating algae for breakfast. It's frustrating but it will eventually clear up. Every tank goes through it .