why is my tank suddenly grungy looking? photo

[Picasso]

The past few days, I'm noticing these brownish patches. I still haven't done my first water change. My tank was first filled November 1st. shouldn't my snails and crabs be eating this junk? What do you do about it? Thanks.

 

[reeffreak]

Brown diatoms is just part of the system maturing.There is still more and different algae problems you are going to battle during the first year.Some nassarius snails to stir the sand bed may help somewhat,if you don't have any right now.Queen and fighting conch might help as well.I say it's time for your first water change too.

 

[dustin_P74]

diatoms, they come and go, dont stress it

 

[yote]

Yep,those are diatoms.
And like Reef stated,I'd say its time to do a water change.

 

[cthegame]

+1 all of the above

 

[Bifferwine]

Diatoms. Welcome to the algae cycle.

 

[Picasso]

OK, I'm going to do my first water change tomorrow. Tonight, I'm going to use a 5 gallon bucket and make saltwater. I'll put a heater in it and let it sit over-night. Tomorrow morning, I'll take another 5 gallon bucket and siphon out 5 gallons of water trying to suck up stuff from the bottom. Then, I'm going to pull all my rock apart to get to the one covered in red bubble algae. I'll pull the algae off without popping any of the bubbles. Then, I'll put all the rocks back together, trying also to move The Shroom who is still stinging JoJo. Then I'll put the new 5 gallons of salt water that's nice and warm from overnight heating. I'll wipe my tank down with my new festive cleaning cloth and be done? That's a question. Thanks,
Catherine

 

[Altohombre]

diatoms are only slightly less annoying than Hair Algae. They seem to go away faster though.

 

[yote]

You got the right idea Catherine.Except if your going to move some rock around,wait untill you've moved it and got it back where you want it,before you start siphoning.That way you get some of the crud thats going to stirred up out of your tank.

 

[RyanG]

When hair algae gets a foothold you wish you had diatoms! Those will be gone for now in a couple days as long as you have a decent ammount of flow.

 

[bigploch]

yeah when the diatoms start to go away, you think you are good, and then BAM. All that cool looking spotty green fuzz turns into hair algae so thick you wish you could throw your weedeater in there. It's all part of the fun.

 

[Piggy]

Be sure to put a powerhead in your water change water.

 

[cthegame]

diatoms dont bother me. so easy to clean off the glass. Appreciate it as things will get rough for the next few months with other lame ass algae. :frustrat:

oh and Coraline is not as great as it sounds once its starts taking hold of your front glass (cough cough biff cough)

 

[yote]

diatoms dont bother me. so easy to clean off the glass. Appreciate it as things will get rough for the next few months with other lame ass algae. :frustrat:

oh and Coraline is not as great as it sounds once its starts taking hold of your front glass (cough cough biff cough)

Dont forget the cyano.That stuffs a pain in itself.
If coraline would just grow on the back glass and the rocks,it'd be OK. But it sucks the calcium and alkalinity that corals could use.

 

[Bifferwine]

oh and Coraline is not as great as it sounds once its starts taking hold of your front glass (cough cough biff cough)

We're keeping up with it now! NDB cleaned the glass again yesterday!