Brown diatom every week

[dragonfisher33]

so my bare bottom mixed reef 40B has been established for more than a year now. I have the Evergrow LED about 12inches above the water level, run a Reef Octopus BH1000 skimme and Two Little Fishies phosban 150 loaded with GFO proportion to the 40gal volume. The powerheads that i use are WP25 and a Koralia 750 to turn over the water. reef inhabitants includes 2 clowns, 1 lawnmower blenny, 1 neon blue goby, 1 yellow corris wrasse, 3 rose bubble tip nem that originally came from a single nem, a couple snails and hermit crabs as CUC. i feed twice a day through the Eheim feeder and everything is eaten within minutes so there's no excess food floating around. phosphate/nitrate = 0ppm using Hanna checker.

I was wondering how often you guys scrap your DT glass for diatom? it seems to me that i need to do at least once every 2-3 days to get rid of patches of diatom or i can do a once weekly top-bottom cleaning of all sides of the glass.

 

[phillrodrigo]

That's just glad algea not diatoms. Doing it every 2 to 3 days isn't horrible but could be better. I pretty sure everyone has it. It's just how often you have to clean it. What are your phosphate and nitrate readings

 

[dragonfisher33]

0ppm using hanna checker

 

[Eckolancer]

With diatoms you will get false readings.

 

[dragonfisher33]

also, sometimes it's not just brown, I also have some green algae sticking to the glass as well. not as much as the brown algae but still algae nonetheless.

 

[dragonfisher33]

That's just glad algea not diatoms. Doing it every 2 to 3 days isn't horrible but could be better. I pretty sure everyone has it. It's just how often you have to clean it. What are your phosphate and nitrate readings

i would like to know what it is that I can do to decrease it a bit

 

[Eckolancer]

If your running gfo it is probably used up pretty quick since you still have diatoms. Gfo is used up pretty fast unless you are running a true low nutrient system.

 

[dragonfisher33]

I will change the gfo this week. thanks for the heads up

 

[dragonfisher33]

but is there anything else? when I use new gfo before, I still have about the same amount of brown algae though

 

[Reefing Madness]

If your scraping your glass, its not diatoms, thats just normal algae growth. Your lights must be hitting there and that coupled with a direct hit with a powehead will have that effect.

 

[dragonfisher33]

If your scraping your glass, its not diatoms, thats just normal algae growth. Your lights must be hitting there and that coupled with a direct hit with a powehead will have that effect.

is there anything I can do to ease the growth of the algae? the light from the LED hits all sides of the tank and the powerheads have provided a good flow all around.

 

[Reefing Madness]

I used to get the same thing, I had to move my lights back a bit, so they weren't directly hitting the front glass, that was my only concern, I wasn't to worried about the back that much. The sides never really got that much, it was the front that killed me.

 

[Wags]

Where do you get your water? I was using RO (thought it was RODI) and would get diatom bloom after every water change. Also possibly the salt?

 

[dragonfisher33]

Where do you get your water? I was using RO (thought it was RODI) and would get diatom bloom after every water change. Also possibly the salt?

i use rodi water with 0tds. no diatom bloom after the water change like you're having. just algae growth after 2 days of water change/tank maintenance

 

[3dees]

I also clean my glass a few times a week. I also get a little on the sand, but not the rocks. I tried gfo and it made no difference. I'm just living with it. it only takes a few minutes to clean the glass.

 

[Wags]

Sounds like your doing everything right. Maybe bring back your lighting cycle a little? I believe your in territory way past my knowledge level.

 

[Eckolancer]

Do you have a sand bed? Suck out built up nutrients. Do you have a sump? Suck out gunk in the bottom. Also take a small powerhead and do what I like to call a power wash of all rocks in the tank. Blow all the gunk out of all the little holes and under rocks. Then do a big water change. Cut back on feeding. You only get algae from excess nutrients. This can come from fish poop not just food. Also a lot of foods have oils that are released into the water right away. I would bet your gfo is getting used up in like 4 hours after adding new. If your are seeing algae in tank you still have phosphates. Have you tested your rodi water for phosphates? I used to get phosphates from my rodi water, even with 0tds.

 

[dragonfisher33]

Do you have a sand bed? Suck out built up nutrients. Do you have a sump? Suck out gunk in the bottom. Also take a small powerhead and do what I like to call a power wash of all rocks in the tank. Blow all the gunk out of all the little holes and under rocks. Then do a big water change. Cut back on feeding. You only get algae from excess nutrients. This can come from fish poop not just food. Also a lot of foods have oils that are released into the water right away. I would bet your gfo is getting used up in like 4 hours after adding new. If your are seeing algae in tank you still have phosphates. Have you tested your rodi water for phosphates? I used to get phosphates from my rodi water, even with 0tds.

no sand bed. no sump. I will test my rodi for phosphate later on.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Reducing light, nutrients or, if you do not want to or cannot reduce them, possibly reducing iron are the ways to decrease the growth of algae.

My glass also needs cleaning in 2-3 days, but if I was more aggressive with GFO I expect I could reduce that further.

Other methods of nutrient reduction also work, such as organic carbon dosing, denitrators, growing macroalgae or an ATS, skimming, etc.

I use most of those at the same time.