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After 2 years in college and contracting with the USAF I finally have saved enough to move out into my own apartment which allows aquariums. So I decided to do a low maintenance acan, now reclassified as micromussa, and favia focused tank with a few other corals ranging from lps to sps spread about. Equipment: Tank: Mr. Aqua 12"x12"x12" cube, 7.5gal internal volume Light: Wavepoint Blade HO, for now, If an upgrade is needed this will change Heater: Cobalt Neotherm 50 Starting "foundation": Carib Sea Pink fiji sand and dry rock with Seachem quick start dosed for 2 weeks Filtration: Aqua Clear 20. Might have to look into a bigger or better HOB filtration system. The biggest issue is space along the back of the tank with a rim mounted light. Livestock: Currently a single blue Damselfish. This picture was taken the morning before the Diatom explosion. You can see some spots of diatoms beginning to form on the rocks directly below the fish. I just got a new phone so all of my old photos of the tank when it was initially setup got lost in the transfer. The tank is currently going through the first step of the "Ugly Phase" with a full swing diatom bloom.

Over the past few months this yucky brown algae has been growing over my sand bed. Can anyone identify it? It’s kind of hairy in appearance if you look at it up close and it sticks the sand together. My nassarius snails avoid it and just stay in a clean corner of the tank. How do I get rid of it?

Soo...I have a diatom/brown algae bloom. I knew it was going to happen and that I just have to let it cycle, do water changes, reduce photo period, keep nitrates down, etc. I have two questions regarding the algae, if I keep my blue light on, is that the same as turning the lights off so photosynthesis of the diatoms shuts down? There is some starting to grow on my toadstools, is this going to hurt them? (no pictures, it's just run of the mill diatoms) Next, I'd like to adjust the photoperiod so that the lights turn on and off later. What is the best way to do this? Give them a longer night or gradually adjust? Thanks in advance!!

Without going into water Params, does this look like Dino’s or diatoms? There’s coralline, hair algae and then the brown all mixed together. On some rocks it looks like Dino’s, on the sand bed it looks like diatoms and on the glass it looks like all of it. My 20G Long has been a swing of issues over the last 3 yrs. Mostly green hair algae. But this brown crap has been going on for a little while now. Thanks a bunch!!!

Hi All, I am new to this forum as a poster but have visited many times over the course of my marine hobby. I have now hit a problem where I cannot quite tell the situation so was hoping to get some thoughts. My tank has been setup for just over two years, and in the last year things have been as perfect as I could ask for. My maintenance has been rigid and regular. My tank is an Aqua One 90 litre Nano, I wet skim 24/7 and run a phosban reactor keeping my phosphates at 0. My lighting is an AI prime with the David Saxby schedule. I have a Jebao SW4 wave maker on random mode and cannot see any dead spots. As mentioned, things have been perfect for a year or more. My issue is around two weeks ago now, my pearly white sand started to develop what I thought were diatoms on the sand bed... which confused me to why as my cycle happened around two years ago now. I used a Turkey blaster to remove as much as I could however they seemed to come back with a vengeance after my water change. I know it's not cyano as in my early days I had a battle with it which nearly made me chuck the towel in, but finally I won therefore I am familiar with this pest. My worry is that it could be dinoflagellates, although my conch snail seems to be munching on it day in day out with no issues, my other cuc are all living happily too. My Parameters:Nitrates: 0ppmNitrite: 0ppmPhosphates: 0ppmPH: 8.2Mag: 1300Ammonia: 0ppm Salinity 1.025 As it seems to be expanding to the rock work, I planned to buy some Dino X which I had read works well for dinoflagellates which I am so worried they could be, however I also got a TDS meter delivered this morning to test my RO water - I do not make my own RO, I buy it weekly from the LFS. Anyway my reading came out at 3ppm which then made me wonder if silicates are getting in on my top off's. I am no expert and literally reading, researching as I go. I did also buy a microscope of Amazon to see if I could identify - but I couldn't tell. A picture is attached, but any thoughts, ideas, or guidance would be really appreciated. Thanks!

Red Sea Max Nano set up for about 4 months. I have two Frostbite Frozen Clowns, and number of mushroom corals and a few Rock Flower Anems (I found out after the fact that it was a little early to introduce the anems, but they seem to be doing great). Anyway, I have been battling some kind of algae for the past 2 months. I searched and searched and was pretty sure it was diatoms, but now I don't know. Definitely not Cyano as I tried Chemiclean and it did nothing. I do seem to get a bloom after water changes, but I have an RODI system from BRS and the meter reads 0 for TDS. I am mixing the RODI water and salt in a Brute trash can and have a heater and pump in and on at all times (Should there be a film collecting on the pump / heater / sides of container? because there is... maybe this is nothing or a separate issue). Regardless, I'd love to figure out what this is and how to combat it. Hopefully the pictures below show the problem clearly enough. My Dry rock is completely brown from it and it's getting harder and harder to blow off with a turkey baster. The glass is much easier to clean, and I have started to swipe from bottom to top rinsing the sponge each time in a separate container to make sure I'm pulling most of whatever it is out of the tank completely. When it gets thick, it has a "wavy" look to it. Definitely moving with the flow as opposed to just covering with no movement. Any help / advice is greatly appreciated.

Hey I'm new to this site but fairly experienced reefer. I've had a tank set up for a few years now but have now been overrun with what I think is Dino's but I'm not sure can anyone help with ID.