Apperance of a yelloy colored substrate

[kaimarkhirst]

Hi,

Have noticed an increasing surface area of yelowy colored something on my live sand substrate. Can Anybody tell me what this is??

Cheers

Kai

[travie]

Sounds like diatom algae. Just keep up with water changes, and it will go a way with time and patience.

[kaimarkhirst]

Havent done any water changes or anything. There are no fishes at all nor clean up crew in my Nano yet, its only just finishing up its cycle.

What Can I add as a Clean Up crew to tackle this?

Thanks indeed

Kai

[travie]

I personally don't know of anything that will eat diatom algae that would be good for a CUC. Its a normal part of the algae cycle that all SW tanks go through. It will go away in time just need to keep phosphates and nitrates as low as possible.

[kaimarkhirst]

I thought Emerald Crabs, Cerith Snails and Turbo snails would do this??

If not, what kind of cleaning do they do??

[travie]

Diatoms are not a big enough deal and don't last long enough(assuming you keep nitrates and phosphates down) to have any part of your CUC devoted to eating them in my opinion.

[kaimarkhirst]

phosphates.

whats the best way to remove them exactly?? Just water changes or use an agent for it...

Nitrates in a amarine is just structured average lighting and water changes the same as a FW I take it.

[travie]

Feed less and just keep up on 10% weekly water changes. Soaking any food in RO/DI water before feeding the food will also help.