Brown diatom dust

[Metrontech]

Ok, getting a little frustrated now

This has been happening for a while now
Tank is only 2 months old son this may be Normal

Bible any help would be appreciated

It can happen in a matter of 2-3 hours, the whole tank gets full of brown algae dust

Some of it is finally turning green...

Any help? Attachment 13946Attachment 13947

[WarDog]

It might help if you gave more information on your tank, params, etc.

Diatoms at 2 months is normal. I am going through that now. I clean the glass daily and turkey baste the rocks. Also rinse my passive carbon every 2 days. This seems to help and the diatoms look to be in recession. If its green then you may be dealing with algae. Check your PO4 and reduce your photo period and/or intensity, if you don't have corals yet.

...and where's your tank journal? It's a new requirement on Canreef!

[Metrontech]

Can you exclaim the journal? And the photo period?

I think it's the amount of time the lights are on? Lol

Mike

Originally Posted by WarDog

It might help if you gave more information on your tank, params, etc.

Diatoms at 2 months is normal. I am going through that now. I clean the glass daily and turkey baste the rocks. Also rinse my passive carbon every 2 days. This seems to help and the diatoms look to be in recession. If its green then you may be dealing with algae. Check your PO4 and reduce your photo period and/or intensity, if you don't have corals yet.

...and where's your tank journal? It's a new requirement on Canreef!

[Metrontech]

I get it... I'll post one soon

Originally Posted by WarDog

It might help if you gave more information on your tank, params, etc.

Diatoms at 2 months is normal. I am going through that now. I clean the glass daily and turkey baste the rocks. Also rinse my passive carbon every 2 days. This seems to help and the diatoms look to be in recession. If its green then you may be dealing with algae. Check your PO4 and reduce your photo period and/or intensity, if you don't have corals yet.

...and where's your tank journal? It's a new requirement on Canreef!

[gregzz4]

Your tank is very young and you'll go through more than just diatoms before it settles down

Don't get frustrated, it's all part of a new tank

Soon you'll get hair and all kinds of other algae. Just do your best to keep it clean as the issues arise and enjoy it.
It's a big learning curve so be patient

[Metrontech]

Ok, so I got this figured out!

Might be a rookie move, but I put medium sized crushed coral in my one piece sump when I put this setup together

I noticed there was a lot of waste buildup in there, but my nitrates were ZERO

I think I was getting the brown dust from that dirty water...or whatever scientific term you would use

So, I wet vac'd the entire thing out and put all new Salt water in there

Its been 2 days and the tank is doing great...

I am putting my 55 Gal sump in this weekend which as sections so I will be able to control things much better!

Thanks for all the input!!

[Myka]

Diatoms are the only algae you should be seeing during your cycling. If you're seeing it starting to turn green that is not good, and you should be taking steps to prevent this. Daily or twice daily turkey basting is a good idea. Replacing filter pads/socks everyday or every second day is a good plan. What type of filtration do you have? Socks? filter pads? Skimmer? Do you have a clean up crew in there yet? If so, what do you have?

As far as the sump goes, removal of the crushed coral is probably a good idea. I don't like to have rock, sand, or any substrate at all in my sumps.

Also, I prefer to keep lights off during the cycle. Once the cycle is over, I will slowly ramp up lights starting with just a couple hours a day. As soon as diatoms are seen I add some snails (not a load of them). I slowly ramp the light up by a couple hours a week, and ramp up the number of snails, keeping it all in balance as far as algae vs light vs snails. You might find turning the lights off for a week will help you out if it starts coming back.

[Metrontech]

Sorry for the lack of detail

Currently I am running a 55 display with an open 30 gallon sump

I am running a coral life 125 skimmer which is currently hanging on the back of my display because I can't get it into the sump because of my stand (changing that this weekemd)

I'll be putting a 55 gallon sump with 3 sections in it and I will love my skimmer there

I am running a phosban from 2 little fish with the high output gfo stuff

Lights are 4 x 54w t5 (blue, special blue, purple and day liht)

I have lots of movement in the tank, all my lps Amd softies are growing like weeds (hammer, Xenia, Kenya, gsp, toadstool and a few others)

I am doing calcium and iodine daily and other than that I doing my weekly 7-10 gallon water changes

Haven't had to clean my tank in 4 days...

What a relief

I

Originally Posted by Myka

Diatoms are the only algae you should be seeing during your cycling. If you're seeing it starting to turn green that is not good, and you should be taking steps to prevent this. Daily or twice daily turkey basting is a good idea. Replacing filter pads/socks everyday or every second day is a good plan. What type of filtration do you have? Socks? filter pads? Skimmer? Do you have a clean up crew in there yet? If so, what do you have?

As far as the sump goes, removal of the crushed coral is probably a good idea. I don't like to have rock, sand, or any substrate at all in my sumps.

Also, I prefer to keep lights off during the cycle. Once the cycle is over, I will slowly ramp up lights starting with just a couple hours a day. As soon as diatoms are seen I add some snails (not a load of them). I slowly ramp the light up by a couple hours a week, and ramp up the number of snails, keeping it all in balance as far as algae vs light vs snails. You might find turning the lights off for a week will help you out if it starts coming back.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Metrontech

I am doing calcium and iodine daily and other than that I doing my weekly 7-10 gallon water changes

Iodine is really good at helping algae grow. I would not be dosing iodine daily. Your tank where it's at right now probably doesn't need any dosing at all - especially not iodine.

Are you testing calcium? I doubt you need to be dosing calcium at this point. Generally, as a tank gets stocked, alkalinity is the first thing a person will need to dose. I even test alkalinity and dose accordingly in fish only tanks as it helps to keep algae from growing. Also, increasing calcium will lower alkalinity and you will get really out of whack. Corals are much more sensitive to alkalinity than calcium.