Diatom bloom help

[Trooper182]

My 75g has been running since Aug of last year. I'm experiencing a diatom bloom on half of my rocks. There's some on the right side rocks but the left half of the tank is worse. Sand bed is clean. My parameters as of last Thursday 28 jan are

Salinity: 1.021 (now at 1.026)
N03: 20 (same this week)
P04: .03
Alk 9 (now 10.5)
Mag: 1080 (now 1370)
Ca: 430
Ph: 8.3

I did a 25% water change on Sunday and do 20% every 2 weeks. Feed 3 times a day. Have a good cleanup crew and have 2 clowns, 1 purple dottyback, 1 one spot foxface, 1 diamond goby, 1 lawnmower blenny, 3 chromis, 1 coral beauty. My sump has two filter socks I change twice a week (switching to a roller this weekend), sea lettuce in the fuge section and biomedia. Trying to get this under control. Tested my rodi top off and it's showing 1. I dose cal and alk.

 

[bushdoc]

Few things:

1. Dry rock?
2. Diatoms are not that bad, just unsightly
3. You could test silica in RODI water
4. Increase flow on the left side
5. Your nitrates are bit high
6. you might still be in early faze of your tank maturation

 

[Trooper182]

Few things:

1. Dry rock?
2. Diatoms are not that bad, just unsightly
3. You could test silica in RODI water
4. Increase flow on the left side
5. Your nitrates are bit high
6. you might still be in early faze of your tank maturation

Yes, started the tank with dry rock. Yea I just hate the way it looks and seems like it's growing fast. I'm working to get the nitrates under control. Doing to add a skimmer to the sump and probably another gyre to that side of the tank so I'll have two gyres working in tandem.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

I might be mistaken, but that kind of looks like crysophites or dinos to me.

I am not an expert.

 

[Trooper182]

I might be mistaken, but that kind of looks like crysophites or dinos to me.

I am not an expert.

Looking at them you may be correct, does look more like crysophites. Thinking back, I switched my wavemaker out for a smaller one because the one I had was way overpowered for my tank. The flow now makes it about half the tank and dies down. Would explain why the right side were the wavemaker is is almost clear while the left is blooming.

 

[Coxey81]

My 75g has been running since Aug of last year. I'm experiencing a diatom bloom on half of my rocks. There's some on the right side rocks but the left half of the tank is worse. Sand bed is clean. My parameters as of last Thursday 28 jan are

Salinity: 1.021 (now at 1.026)
N03: 20 (same this week)
P04: .03
Alk 9 (now 10.5)
Mag: 1080 (now 1370)
Ca: 430
Ph: 8.3

I did a 25% water change on Sunday and do 20% every 2 weeks. Feed 3 times a day. Have a good cleanup crew and have 2 clowns, 1 purple dottyback, 1 one spot foxface, 1 diamond goby, 1 lawnmower blenny, 3 chromis, 1 coral beauty. My sump has two filter socks I change twice a week (switching to a roller this weekend), sea lettuce in the fuge section and biomedia. Trying to get this under control. Tested my rodi top off and it's showing 1. I dose cal and alk.

Did you just recently turn lights on or haven't been running them much?

Diatoms need Silicates to survive and won't really grow in the dark. Once the silicate is used up they will go away. They are usually prominent in new systems due to siclicate released from new, dry, unmature rock and sand. But they could be coming from your RODI water. Do you know your RODI outcomes TDS?

If you are using color changing resins to polish off the last stage to get TDS, silicates can leak before all the resin is used up. It's recommended to change when resin color is 3/4 changed.

I don't think it's dinos, but hard to tell from pics. But those would be cause if your nutrients had bottomed out for a while.

 

[Coxey81]

Looking at them you may be correct, does look more like crysophites. Thinking back, I switched my wavemaker out for a smaller one because the one I had was way overpowered for my tank. The flow now makes it about half the tank and dies down. Would explain why the right side were the wavemaker is is almost clear while the left is blooming.

Yeah, could be crysophites.

 

[saltyhog]

Agree it could be chrysophytes. The out of balance (low) PO4 could predispose to dinos but as others have said if the color renditions in the photos are right chrysophytes are more likely.

 

[vetteguy53081]

My 75g has been running since Aug of last year. I'm experiencing a diatom bloom on half of my rocks. There's some on the right side rocks but the left half of the tank is worse. Sand bed is clean. My parameters as of last Thursday 28 jan are

Salinity: 1.021 (now at 1.026)
N03: 20 (same this week)
P04: .03
Alk 9 (now 10.5)
Mag: 1080 (now 1370)
Ca: 430
Ph: 8.3

I did a 25% water change on Sunday and do 20% every 2 weeks. Feed 3 times a day. Have a good cleanup crew and have 2 clowns, 1 purple dottyback, 1 one spot foxface, 1 diamond goby, 1 lawnmower blenny, 3 chromis, 1 coral beauty. My sump has two filter socks I change twice a week (switching to a roller this weekend), sea lettuce in the fuge section and biomedia. Trying to get this under control. Tested my rodi top off and it's showing 1. I dose cal and alk.

This stuff is indeed Chrsophytes and is labor work for removal. Take the rock out and place in large container with tank water.
Give the tank a good siphon and clean all filters and skimmer if you have one.
Scrub the rock with a firm toothbrush Or auto detail brush and 3% peroxide. Agitate to shake off particles and add cleaners such as Pitho crabs, chiton snails, ninja star snails and caribbean blue leg hermits to help with control and reduce white intensity a little and increase water flow. You likely have inadequate flow which allowed this to adhere to rock

 

[Trooper182]

Agree it could be chrysophytes. The out of balance (low) PO4 could predispose to dinos but as others have said if the color renditions in the photos are right chrysophytes are more likely.

So should I be attempting to raise PO4? What's the ideal range to be in? Im definitely going to add more flow to that side of the tank.

 

[jtichenor]

Get/borrow a uv filter. Blow off the rock with a turkey baster as often as possible to keep them suspended so will pass through uv.

 

[salty150]

Interesting article:

Chrysophytes are protists that resemble plants and are typically found in freshwater and marine habitats with low calcium.

Also, according to Vivid Aquariums, to get rid of Diatoms in 5-7 days - add Fleischmann's Rapid Rise Instant Yeast at a rate of 1/4 teaspoon per 400 gallons total volume every other day for 5-7 days.

 

[Troylee]

Interesting article:

Chrysophytes are protists that resemble plants and are typically found in freshwater and marine habitats with low calcium.

Also, according to Vivid Aquariums, to get rid of Diatoms in 5-7 days - add Fleischmann's Rapid Rise Instant Yeast at a rate of 1/4 teaspoon per 400 gallons total volume every other day for 5-7 days.

So that’s 1/16th of a tsp per 100 gallons.. is that like 3 specs of dust in a 50? Lol. I read that one day too and was like ummmmm..

 

[salty150]

So that’s 1/16th of a tsp per 100 gallons.. is that like 3 specs of dust in a 50? Lol. I read that one day too and was like ummmmm..

Yeah, his display tank is 800 gallons, so...

It obviously doesn't take much, and has seemed to work for several people.

Here is his video:

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

If it were diatoms, I would probably leave them as its pod and detrivore food, but that's not for everyone.

And I am pretty sure I might be right about it being crysophites