Causes of diatom/brown slime outbreak?

[Angelo Fatica]

I have recently had a huge diatom and brown hair algae/slime outbreak in my tank. I've tried water changes, scraping/cleaning and changing out floss every day, and even lowered my white light intensity and lowered the amount of time my lights are on. My nitrates and phosphates are undetectable and I've been trying to figure out the reason behind this constant outbreak? I'm going to try to revive my clean up crew tomorrow afternoon. Could it have been that I accidentally stirred the sand up a bit during a water change a month or so ago? I know that it releases bad bacteria in the water, but I dont think that it would last this long... any help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[sfin52]

Are you sure you aren't dealing with dino. Zero phosphates and nitrates is an environment that they thrive in.

 

[Angelo Fatica]

Are you sure you aren't dealing with dino. Zero phosphates and nitrates is an environment that they thrive in.

Yes it could be... I'm not sure how to keep my nitrates up, I've been heavily feeding my tank! I dont really want to add any chemicals to get the levels up, is there any ways of dealing with it?

 

[sfin52]

Are you carbon dosing? Are you running any cheato?

 

[Angelo Fatica]

Are you carbon dosing? Are you running any cheato?

No carbon dosing or chaeto, I had carbon running in there for a couple weeks after my water change a while ago... also have used chemipure blue in there as well. Those could be what kept my levels so low.

 

[sfin52]

If you suspect dino I would add activated carbon to absorb the toxins that can and will be released.

 

[Subsea]

Many nuisance algae thrive in low nutrients. I suggest you dose nitrogen. If you consider the nitrogen/phosphorous ration 0f macro algae as 30:1 it is an easy deduction.

 

[Angelo Fatica]

Would chenipure blue be a suspect in terms of keeping phosphates and such at low levels? I still have it in at the moment, should I take it out?

 

[Subsea]

Would chenipure blue be a suspect in terms of keeping phosphates and such at low levels? I still have it in at the moment, should I take it out?

Remove chemipure and use GAC. Granulated activated carbon removes dissolved organic carbon which grows bacteria. Slime in tank is a soup of bacteria. Cynobacteria can use nitrogen fixation and inorganic phosphate assimilation to grow.

For healthy algae (macro algae is a seaweed) to outcompete Cynobacteria requires inorganic nutrients to grow. Allow phosphate to come up and dose nitrogen.

 

[sfin52]

No carbon dosing or chaeto, I had carbon running in there for a couple weeks after my water change a while ago... also have used chemipure blue in there as well. Those could be what kept my levels so low.

It's not elite is it? Elite has gfo from what I read.

 

[Angelo Fatica]

It's not elite is it? Elite has gfo from what I read.

No it is just the blue, I've used elite before without issues but it seems that the whole outbreak happened a week after putting it in.

 

[Angelo Fatica]

Remove chemipure and use GAC. granulated activated carbon removes dissolved organic carbon which grows bacteria. Slime in tank is a soup of bacteria. Cynobacteria can use nitrogen fixation and inorganic phosphate assimilation to grow.

I'll give this a try, thanks!

 

[Subsea]

I'll give this a try, thanks!

When I said discontinue chemipure, I thought that it had gfo in it. Understand this about activated carbon, it is not all equal. Just as DOC has numerous compounds there are different GAC for differrent compounds.