I’m glad you said diatom algae everything I saw on YouTube was leading me to that but figured it wouldn’t hurt to post it so I could confirm. Is it true just kinda let it run its course and eventually goes away?. I figured as much on the glass cleaning was just nervous with his fast it accumulates didn’t wanna chance it being something worseLooks like normal diatom algae or something similar. Glass cleaning is a task that never goes away unfortunately.
It’s brown. honestly it’s not even really bothering me I just was more concerned that maybe it was something worse that I needed to take care of it before it got worse. And yeah the tank has quite a few scratches which bothers me more than anything. I’m def going to give that a read thank you !Is the algae brown or green? If it's brown it's diatoms and will eventually give way to green algae as silica is depleted in new tanks. FWIW, that's not a ton of algae, and scratches will make it more prominent. I actually prefer diatoms to the algae that usually comes later, as it's easier to remove with scrapers and more nutritious for snails/urchins (they use it for their radula, or teeth). I've actually experimented with dosing silica in my aquariums, following RHF's directions, but decided to stop until I bought an accurate test kit. You can read more about silica here: https://reefs.com/magazine/silica-in-reef-aquariums/
I just got through a very intense diatom stage. I think for me copepods really helped. I can actually see them on the glass eating the remaining spots. heres a vid