Is this Diatoms?

[nc_obs]

So my tanks been up since mid April. Maybe mid may my white sand wasn't that white, turning kinda brownish I guess. Then I went on a trip and had my sis in law watch the tank for 10 days. When I came back thick green mat, maybe a quarter in thick across the whole bottom. I didn't imagine diatoms would be that thick. plus its not just gone away. Is this green algae or diatoms?

Side question, same week I was gone black beard showed up on my plants, Ive seen excel suggested to kill this, but will that kill my snails/the glass algae thats sustaining them?

[Lady Hobbs]

Diatoms are normal in new tanks for the first couple of months. Charcoal and lots of water changes helps get rid of it. It has nothing to do with thick green algae growing across the bottom of the tank and BBA, tho?

How often are you doing water changes? Is your tank catching the full sun coming thru a window? Sounds like a couple large water changes are in order. Have you tested for high nitrates?

[rich311k]

That is not diatoms, sounds like to much light to me. It is a slimy blue green color?

[nc_obs]

Since starting the tank I've done 20-25% water change once a week every week. And no it's about 12 feet from the nearest window, but I do turn my fluorescent on at about 5:30 am and off at like 10pm, so maybe that's too much? I don't think I'm overfeeding my fish cause they scarf what I give them in well under a minute every day. maybe I should just try and make a big vacuum run at it and try to suck it all up? it doesn't grow back that fast. I don't think there's much of a blue to it(but my color vision is pretty weak, not color blind but half way there :doh: ) to suck it all up I'd probably go through half or more of my water in the process, so maybe that'd be a good 2 birds with one stone effect. Should I hit it with some sort of algae killer stuff? I've been avoiding putting chemicals in aside from Prime.

[rich311k]

8-10 hours is plenty of light for your plants. Does it remove easily? is it hairy or smooth?

[nc_obs]

It's pretty smooth and it'll suck up in big chunks when I'm vacuuming the bottom, but that doesn't tell me much cause it's on sand, so if it was trying to hold tight it'd just pull up a thin layer of sand, seems to be just sitting on top of the sand though. that particular type is only on the bottom too, none on the plants or my driftwood that I've seen.

[rich311k]

Does it look like the stuff on the rock behind the fish?

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[nc_obs]

I wanna say no, but it's hard to tell on a rocky surface like that. I'll get home in like 4 hours and take a couple pictures of it and post them, on zoomed close, one not so and see what you think. that'd probably be easiest.

[nc_obs]

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[little hawaii]

What type of sand is it? It almost looks like diatomesus earth, or ashtry sand to the laymen.

[FishGirl-Seattle]

Looks like BGA to me. Does it come off in sheets?

[rich311k]

That is cyano. You need to clean it out and do a 3 day blackout. Is this tank planted?

[nc_obs]

Yes, it comes off in sheets, probably 2" across. And I have 1 live plant, the rest are fake. I sucked most of it out yesterday but with it getting mixed with the sand I can't get all of it.

[Lady Hobbs]

Algae: A How to Primer ([Only Registered Users Can See Links.])

Did you read Daves algae thread just above yours? To may find that a helpful source to come back to on occassion. We just luvs our algaes, don't we?

[nc_obs]

the cyano advice in the primer suggests cranking up the light and sucking it out, kinda odd for beating a photosynthetic thingy

[FishGirl-Seattle]

If it's coming off in sheets that's definitely BGA (aka cyano bacteria). Gird your loins - it's going to take some effort. Blackout, reduce the dissolved organics, vacuum it everywhere (and anytime) you see it, and stock up on gin. The gin really helped me through my BGA period.