Brown stuff & bubbles...

[SpongeBob]

I'm pretty sure this is good for a tank cycling in its fifth week but would like some reassurance.

I have some ugly brown stuff growing everywhere, especially on the sand. The DSB has just starting producing bubbles everywhere -- one or two bubbles every second here and there...

Feedback appreciated!

[slipknottin]

brown stuff?

does it go away as soon as you hit it with some water movement?

Might be diatoms...

[SpongeBob]

Just swept some away. Yup, goes away in a cloud of dust...

[slipknottin]

Yea, sounds like diatoms. It happens while your tank is cycling. It feeds off silicates and phosphates in the water.

It will burn itself out and die off in a week or so.

[SpongeBob]

Thanks Slip... and the bubbles?

BTW, just did three minutes research on diatoms... I'm using RO/DI exclusively. Should I still be getting quite a bit?

[slipknottin]

You will while the tank is cycling. A small amount of dieoff on the rock will put some phosphates into the water.

The silicates will always be there, as thats what your glass is made of.

Diatoms arent neccisarily a bad thing, they are food to many many fish and inverts. But they are ugly.

The bubbles are a sign of your sand bed working properly.

[SpongeBob]

Again, THANKS!

I've been doing a test of the response between RC & AC to duplicate questions posted at the same time on each site. Even though AC is much lower in terms of total posts per time period, I have found I always get a quality response here fast because of a few quality reefers very interested in helping!

Thanks a ton to all that have helped me so far!!!

[slipknottin]

:) glad to help