Diatoms

[boxfish]

Are diatoms those brown color stuff that forms a layer or patches on the wall of the tank?

[Tanzy]

Usually they are dusty looking. If they are slime like then they are dinoflagellate. Diatoms are ok and are normally self limiting in Singapore.

[piero]

I had one of those brown algae bloom last month, now red and black algae starting to appear on my LR... are those ok??

[Tanzy]

Those might be cyanobacteria and they are not OK.

[boxfish]

Usually they are dusty looking. If they are slime like then they are dinoflagellate. Diatoms are ok and are normally self limiting in Singapore.

But the layer of diatoms seems like building up if I don't clean the glass wall.

What are the usefulness of diatoms?

is nitrate the cause of diatom buildup?

[piero]

Cyanobateria??? What are those?? And how do I get rid of them.... What are the harmful effects of such stuff?? Do help pls..

[spade]

Cyanobateria??? What are those?? And how do I get rid of them.... What are the harmful effects of such stuff?? Do help pls..

here is tanzy's reply on cyno a while ago

[KingFish]

I have persistent brown algae on my glass, probably due to my tap water. Phosguard reduced the spread, but I suppose unless I get a RO/DI unit, it'll go on.

Since Tanzy mentioned abt cyno, I have some red patches on my glass near and on my sandbed, they don't seem slimy at all.

Any idea what is that?

[Tanzy]

It is normal for cyano to grow between the sand and the glass. It adds colour to the sand bed! Sometimes it might be coralline algae, scrape it a bit to see if it is.

[KingFish]

It is normal for cyano to grow between the sand and the glass. It adds colour to the sand bed! Sometimes it might be coralline algae, scrape it a bit to see if it is.

I've got spots of purple growing everywhere else BUT my rocks, main's glass, refugium's glass, powerhead etc.....

Nope....those unidentified red spots came off easily with a good scrape.....

Coloured sand eh? Yeah... those pink carribean sand is kinda interesting... too bad we can't find it here

[hongqixian]

I've got spots of purple growing everywhere else BUT my rocks, main's glass, refugium's glass, powerhead etc..... ... maybe I'll take them out for a good scrub...

Nope....those unidentified red spots came off easily with a good scrape.....

Coloured sand eh? Yeah... those pink carribean sand is kinda interesting... too bad we can't find it here

No need to take them out. Scratching /rubbing the patches in the tank will release fragments of coralline that will settle and seed bare areas.

[piero]

I just did that.. took my old tooth brush and help my tank did some brushing today.... The whole tank covered with the stupid algae but cleared up after one hour.. Looks much cleaner now...

[KingFish]

I just did that.. took my old tooth brush and help my tank did some brushing today.... The whole tank covered with the stupid algae but cleared up after one hour.. Looks much cleaner now...

You might want to consider getting to try to avoid algae buildup. One of the 'new tank syndrome', I let it run for a while before putting in some Phosguard and a skimmer, that somehow reduced it a little.

To reduce detritus buildup, I try to make it a habit to use my powerhead on the rocks during maintenance. I'm still trying to encourage coraline growth you see, and I hear they need relatively clean surface to propogate.

[Sinn]

what abt green spots on the glass ?

hard to scrape off

what are those ?

thanx

[ZeRoC00l]

Try getting some snails <$1 type>

got 4 in my 2.5ft, super good cleaners , cleaned all my hair algae and dirt on LR. but sand still got traces of brown detritus.

Dark green spot >>>>> coraline algae?

scrape with credit card or magnetoc cleaners

[hongqixian]

Try getting some snails <$1 type>

got 4 in my 2.5ft, super good cleaners <IMO>, cleaned all my hair algae and dirt on LR. but sand still got traces of brown detritus.

Dark green spot >>>>> coraline algae?

scrape with credit card or magnetoc cleaners <doubt can do a clean job, manually better>

Don't overload the tank with snails or they will starve to death after a while eating up all the food IME. Try to find a nice balance that keeps the tank averagely clean with enough food and you can touch up by cleaning off excess algae once in a while.

As for coralline, I like it on the rocks not the glass or equipment. I keep the sides of the tank free with enough space to scrape off the small patches of coralline that appear. Coralline likes to grow on plastic surfaces.