Brown Diatomes/Brown Algae bloom

[thathoyleguy]

Hey guys, im new to the saltwater world, or at least to having my own tank. Been watching alot of videos on tank maintenance, but figured id reach out to people with real world experiences with my issue.

Ive got a 20 gallon nano reef tank thats cycled for about 4 and a half months now. Around month 2 i had a brown diatome bloom so i added a few hermit crabs/snails and shut my coralife seascape light off for a while til the bloom was under control/gone entirely. Fast forward a month, tank parameters are all in check, salinity is good to go, regular water changes using RO/DI water. Ive got 2 small clowns, a cleaner shrimp and the same hermits/snails. just added 4 coral frags about 3 weeks back. Now, the blooms are back and worse than ever, even maintaining the water changes. I thought maybe it was something to do with the lighting, so i upgraded to 2 AI Prime 16HD light systems that give me more control over light spectrums/light cycle hours and that are held up higher off the top of the tank lid (unlike the coralife light).

Any advice?

 

[GoVols]

Welcome to Reef 2 Reef, and hope you feel at home

You may want to just let your diatoms run their course and they will burn out when they burn off the avilable silicates.

maybe the sand bed got distributed???

Might want to give Sera Silicate Clear a try from buying it off amazon


And think about cutting back on your AI's intensity or photoperiod for awhile.

 

[CoralBlue]

Hey guys, im new to the saltwater world, or at least to having my own tank. Been watching alot of videos on tank maintenance, but figured id reach out to people with real world experiences with my issue.

Ive got a 20 gallon nano reef tank thats cycled for about 4 and a half months now. Around month 2 i had a brown diatome bloom so i added a few hermit crabs/snails and shut my coralife seascape light off for a while til the bloom was under control/gone entirely. Fast forward a month, tank parameters are all in check, salinity is good to go, regular water changes using RO/DI water. Ive got 2 small clowns, a cleaner shrimp and the same hermits/snails. just added 4 coral frags about 3 weeks back. Now, the blooms are back and worse than ever, even maintaining the water changes. I thought maybe it was something to do with the lighting, so i upgraded to 2 AI Prime 16HD light systems that give me more control over light spectrums/light cycle hours and that are held up higher off the top of the tank lid (unlike the coralife light).

Any advice?

Like GoVols said, best bet is to ride it out. I didn’t change my lighting but that could help. It also seemed to clear up, among many things when I became more mindful of how much I was feeding.