Dino or cyano..can you tell

I have been battling this for a while. Originally thought it was diatoms. I switched ro/di a month ago. All was well for a few weeks.
Did water change Sunday and voila, it's back.
I changed my carbon Sunday. Its not a great carbon, store was sold out of Matrix. I recall a bloom after changing my carbon the last time. Could this be the issue?

My nitrates have not lowered much since the beginning.

Thank you all for the help

 

No.Nutrients are the issue.

 

My first cyano ever and basically since a month after cycle....SUCKS!

Any suggestions on lowering the nutrient levels? If nitrate is only 5, I cut to every other day feeding, what else could I do?

 

How can one tell the difference between golden diatoms, brown algae, or brown cyano(i've only seen red in ppls tanks)

 

Diatoms look like a "dusting" , brown algae is too generic for me to even attempt to describe it, and cyano is the same no matter the color, red green brown purple blue black etc.

Does the tank get any other light from alternate sources? Like indirect sunlight or ambient lighting?

 

As for lowering nitrate you can try a media, or just stop feeding all together for a couple days at a time (the fish will be fine there is plenty to pick off of in the rock)

 

Diatoms only eat one thing.Silicates. If you are using rodi water and a good salt the only available silicates are quickly used up and the diatoms starve and die. This rarely lasts more then a couple weeks. I agree with Va. Don't rely so much on the numbers. If you are seeing algae/ cyano then you have nutrients. There are a number of ways to combat them but don't expect to see majical results in a few days. I always stress low bioload for reefers because it can be a real chore to maintain water quality without the use and therefore maintenance of nutrient export tools. You just have to find a balance and learn what's best for you and your tank. There are many ways to achieve a clean tank but algae is certainly not unhealthy for the system.Quite the contrary. We just think it's ugly and can be invasive if left unchecked.

 

patience piano, a month is not a really long time in reefkeeping. as for nutrient export there are an array of ways. wasnt it you who used/is using NOPOX? with such a light bioload i would not recomend it as it is rather expensive, but this stuff worked like a charm on my heavily stocked 120. with this being said i also do regular weekly 5% water changes and have a sump with macro growing... those are some examples of nutrient export.

did you write down what your nitrats level were before you switched to RO/DI?

 

He has a fairly heavy bioload actually. 3 fish in a 15 is quite a lot ime. I have 2 fish in my 25 and do 5 gallons a week and still have plenty of algae.

 

thats a rather small system, so water will go out of balance faster