can high lighting cause diatoms?

[cmmatxh]

i keep getting diatoms on my sand and the glass gets it every day as well. could it be because i have my light turned on to the max settings on blues , uv and violet. it’s a 20 gallon cube. 2 months old. i am running a skimmer and 2 days ago i put chemipure blue but still not improvement. also my filter floss clogs up from the diatoms so i have to change it daily and it turns really brown

 

[cmmatxh]

here’s my phosphate levels

 

[RobertTheNurse]

here’s my phosphate levels

We love pictures. Kinda gives us an idea of what we talking about.

 

[cmmatxh]

We love pictures. Kinda gives us an idea of what we talking about.

also i would vacuum the sand one day and the next day it comes back

 

[RobertTheNurse]

How old is the tank. I think I've told about 5 people today to buy a conch lol they are excellent at cleaning sand beds. But they need A LOT Of stuff to munch on. Yours may not be enough yet. They only work on the sand bed not the rocks.

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Just realized you said 2 months old. I think I had 3 snails at the 2 month mark. Slow it down a little, the tank not very mature yet.

Google "ugly phase" or watch some more YouTube videos. Also, try not to rely on chemicals to do the dirty work. If your numbers are high, work on water changes and manual removal, however, your tank is still maturing.

Lots of stock in there for 2 months.

 

[cmmatxh]

2-3 months old. trochus keep the rocks in check, started with 6 and i’m down to 3. i also bought like 3 nessarius idk if they’re all alive i see 2 at night

 

[cmmatxh]

Just realized you said 2 months old. I think I had 3 snails at the 2 month mark. Slow it down a little, the tank not very mature yet.

Google "ugly phase" or watch some more YouTube videos. Also, try not to rely on chemicals to do the dirty work. If your numbers are high, work on water changes and manual removal, however, your tank is still maturing.

Lots of stock in there for 2 months.

i’m doing small water changes right now bc i switched salts. tomorrow i’ll change more hopefully that helps and do you think it would be a good idea to add more snails?

 

[RobertTheNurse]

i’m doing small water changes right now bc i switched salts. tomorrow i’ll change more hopefully that helps and do you think it would be a good idea to add more snails?

Imo snails don't really work good on the sand bed. Conch was the sand monster for me.