Diatom Battle Begins

[ItsAName]

So I'm trying to get rid of diatoms (presumably) in my tank. Just a mess of brown dust everywhere.

I did a 33% water change 2 weeks ago while cleaning the sand, dusting off the rocks. Tank looked good and then 2 weeks later, full on bloom again, totally irritating the coral. I did another 33% water change on Friday, and today it looked a lot of brown again.

Here is my planned cleaning regiment going forward

- 15% water changes ever 3 days while cleaning the sand and rocks (I need to do 15% to make sure I get everything, anything less and I dont get all the sand and rocks)
- Dosing 10ml of peroxide per day (95 gallon tank w/ sump included)
- Blow off coral 2-3 times a day

Here's two other things I was thinking of doing, let me know if it's a bad idea

1. Any smaller rock work, like tonga branches or things that can be easily removed, rinsing them out in the sink
2. It's very hard to clean the back glass and it gets covered quick. I can easily remove the brown from the back panel with a paper towel. If I scrap and use a siphon, I'll remove too much water and won't be able to clean the sand and rocks.

If this doesn't work, Ill buy a microscope and confirm this is the issue.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

If it's diatoms, they are generally fueld by silicates. The outer layers of dry Rock dissolve and a lot of silicate becomes available. Diatoms and sponges and a few other organisms use this for bone building. This helps s why diatoms fade over time. Silicates get used up.

If your tank is not that new and you have prolonged diatom problems , it most likeley silicate is being added to the water.

You can remove silicate by running a gfo. Also check the water source.

 

[ItsAName]

Tank is about 6 months old, does that correspond with still having diatoms from the rocks?

Is using paper towels to wipe them off the glass in the water ok?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yes. It should be ending soon for you actually.

And yea, that's a fine way to clean them off. A mag float works too.

What kind of mechanical filtration do you have now? Like sock , aquaclear, canister.

IMO , with diatoms, good mechanical filtration will really help. Scrape em off the glass etc and the filter will pull them out of the system.
Gfo will help pull the silicats out of the water, and in theory the silicates of the dead diatoms too.

A reactor or canister would be pretty handy.

I'm assuming it's like brown dust.

And double check the tds of your source water. If it's good to go, then the filters should help.

 

[Forsaken77]

Yes. It should be ending soon for you actually.

And yea, that's a fine way to clean them off. A mag float works too.

What kind of mechanical filtration do you have now? Like sock , aquaclear, canister.

IMO , with diatoms, good mechanical filtration will really help. Scrape em off the glass etc and the filter will pull them out of the system.
Gfo will help pull the silicats out of the water, and in theory the silicates of the dead diatoms too.

A reactor or canister would be pretty handy.

I'm assuming it's like brown dust.

And double check the tds of your source water. If it's good to go, then the filters should help.

Same problem. I've had the longest running diatom problem in my history with my cube tank, almost 2 years.

I don't even have much rock in the tank, use a 50 micron sock, and my rodi is always 0 tds with a Spectrapure High Capacity Silicabuster DI cartridge.

Yes, it looks like brown dust on the glass & rocks and if let go to long will develop little strings. I have tried everything to get rid of it. Different salts, completely scrubbing the rocks, gfo, AlgaeFix (which worked the best). The rock was from a friends old reef and was dry for a while and wasn't cured again. But this was 2 years ago. Should be gone by now.

What else could keep them coming back this long?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Same problem. I've had the longest running diatom problem in my history with my cube tank, almost 2 years.

I don't even have much rock in the tank, use a 50 micron sock, and my rodi is always 0 tds with a Spectrapure High Capacity Silicabuster DI cartridge.

Yes, it looks like brown dust on the glass & rocks and if let go to long will develop little strings. I have tried everything to get rid of it. Different salts, completely scrubbing the rocks, gfo, AlgaeFix (which worked the best). The rock was from a friends old reef and was dry for a while and wasn't cured again. But this was 2 years ago. Should be gone by now.

What else could keep them coming back this long?

In your case , I would highly reccomend purchasing a silicate test. And if possible get a microscopic ID of the stuff if you haven't already.

Is it man made rock?

 

[ItsAName]

Yes. It should be ending soon for you actually.

And yea, that's a fine way to clean them off. A mag float works too.

What kind of mechanical filtration do you have now? Like sock , aquaclear, canister.

IMO , with diatoms, good mechanical filtration will really help. Scrape em off the glass etc and the filter will pull them out of the system.
Gfo will help pull the silicats out of the water, and in theory the silicates of the dead diatoms too.

A reactor or canister would be pretty handy.

I'm assuming it's like brown dust.

And double check the tds of your source water. If it's good to go, then the filters should help.

I can't use a mag float on the back because it's painted. I'm using 200 micron filter socks. It's definitely brown dust. The TDS is good, I just replaced everything.
For a reactor, do you mean like a carbon reactor would help?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yes. A reactor can be used or gfo or a plain floss mechanical.

If it's high silicate, carbon won't really pull it out. It binds to gfo.

 

[Forsaken77]

In your case , I would highly reccomend purchasing a silicate test. And if possible get a microscopic ID of the stuff if you haven't already.

Is it man made rock?

No, it's regular rock. The rock I'm putting in my 180 is the CabibSea Life Rock because it contains no cement and has an aragonite base material.

My brother chose that rock also with his IM SR-120 tank and never had a spec of algae in the tank.

I just don't know how silicates could be added when there's nothing I do or have that could add them. I do vacuum the sand, all of it, every 2 weeks and any floating detritus end up in the filter sock.

It also seems to grow in high flow areas. Like if a powerhead is pointed at a pain of glass, it will grow on the powerhead and the glass it's hitting.

How do you get a microscopic ID of what it is?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

No, it's regular rock. The rock I'm putting in my 180 is the CabibSea Life Rock because it contains no cement and has an aragonite base material.

My brother chose that rock also with his IM SR-120 tank and never had a spec of algae in the tank.

I just don't know how silicates could be added when there's nothing I do or have that could add them. I do vacuum the sand, all of it, every 2 weeks and any floating detritus end up in the filter sock.

It also seems to grow in high flow areas. Like if a powerhead is pointed at a pain of glass, it will grow on the powerhead and the glass it's hitting.

How do you get a microscopic ID of what it is?

I'd stil price the test. May as well.

Do a google image search of diatoms. Also check out Mr Farleys articles on diatoms and silicate dosing in the chemistry forums.

IMO. Much like cyano, sometimes high flow ares can actually promote some organisms. Its a more constant And direct food supply.

 

[125gSW]

In diatom bloom as well. Are you using RODI for top off and for water changes? If not, definitely invest in a RODI Filter or buy from lfs. For me I have noticed my diatoms disappearing slowly (it's been 4 months). For example a brown rock now has plenty of spots of no diatoms, etc... Also how's your CUC? Got any ceriths or torchus or nerites?

Main thing is water quality. I never dosed anything yet, but as others suggested something is throwing silicates in. If you do have RODI make sure you check TDS

 

[Forsaken77]

In diatom bloom as well. Are you using RODI for top off and for water changes? If not, definitely invest in a RODI Filter or buy from lfs. For me I have noticed my diatoms disappearing slowly (it's been 4 months). For example a brown rock now has plenty of spots of no diatoms, etc... Also how's your CUC? Got any ceriths or torchus or nerites?

Main thing is water quality. I never dosed anything yet, but as others suggested something is throwing silicates in. If you do have RODI make sure you check TDS

I have a 3 stage in-line tds meter attached to the rodi and I have a really good handheld one as well. I've NEVER had above 0 tds. Plus I have the Spectrapure Silicabuster DI resin on there too. Only rodi has been in the tank since it was setup.

I don't keep a CUC because my fish will eat them. Don't want partly decaying snails hidden around the tank. I've had bad experiences with green emerald crabs attacking my fish when they sleep. That's why I threw some Xenia in there, so hopefully it out competes this dang algae, eventually.

I do have 2 magnificent foxfaces and they rarely eat off the rocks. They rather wait for me to feed them their algae.

 

[125gSW]

I have a 3 stage in-line tds meter attached to the rodi and I have a really good handheld one as well. I've NEVER had above 0 tds. Plus I have the Spectrapure Silicabuster DI resin on there too. Only rodi has been in the tank since it was setup.

I don't keep a CUC because my fish will eat them. Don't want partly decaying snails hidden around the tank. I've had bad experiences with green emerald crabs attacking my fish when they sleep. That's why I threw some Xenia in there, so hopefully it out competes this dang algae, eventually.

I do have 2 magnificent foxfaces and they rarely eat off the rocks. They rather wait for me to feed them their algae.

I got the same Spectrapure haha.

I just noticed your list of fish in the signature lol, yeah they'll get eaten fast.

That's weird, do you have any fake inserts in there? Or anything man made in the tank that could possibly leak silicates?

Also are your phosphate readings good?

 

[Forsaken77]

I got the same Spectrapure haha.

I just noticed your list of fish in the signature lol, yeah they'll get eaten fast.

That's weird, do you have any fake inserts in there? Or anything man made in the tank that could possibly leak silicates?

Also are your phosphate readings good?

Phosphates go up and down with the gfo, but it doesn't seem to matter with this algae.

 

[Forsaken77]

I got the same Spectrapure haha.

I just noticed your list of fish in the signature lol, yeah they'll get eaten fast.

That's weird, do you have any fake inserts in there? Or anything man made in the tank that could possibly leak silicates?

Also are your phosphate readings good?

The only man made things are the gyre, which is new, and an acrylic skimmer stand with plastic wing nuts to raise and lower it.

It may be coming from the sump. It's dirty and because it's custom, and huge, isn't easily accessible. Plus the stand on the 93 cube has a lot of water damage that I don't feel safe having to crawl in and stick my whole torso under it to reach the back chambers. I put a ton of pods down there to help eat and detritus.

I can't get this 180 set up quick enough. Just waiting till the Vectra L1's are back in stock and I'm good to go.

 

[DIAZ REEF]

I was under the impression that with a diatom bloom during cycling, you suppose to just leave it alone.(ugly phase) it will go away and never come back????
min currently having a diatom bloom and the glass I clean every other day.
I have asked many places and they all say leave it alone and BE PATIENT.