Diatom Bloom ??

[actik]

Tank is roughly 2-3 months old, not counting the month i spent cycling it. I prob do a water change every 2-3 weeks. Rocks in center are from a nano tank i had running for roughly a year. Very Very ugly... its hard to look at..

 

[actik]

Oh, forgot to mention last did a water change 3 days ago.

 

[amazongb]

What are your parameters?

 

[actik]

its an API test so it can vary. but
Salinity 1.024
Ph between 8.0-8.2
Ammonia under .25
Nitrate under 5ppm
Alk 3.5??? if thats possible i dont test it often.
Also use instant ocean reef salt and run my t5 4 bulb from 11am (just 2 bulbs till 3pm then all bulbs till 9:30pm

 

[Quietman]

Yup! Diatoms. The scourge of new aquarists. Mine almost drove me crazy. As hard as this will seem...just wait 'em out. I thought about peroxide and other such...got some good advice on here to not do anything stupid. Eventually, long after they've destroyed your confidence and desire to continue in the hobby, they will go away. Mine lasted for 6-8 weeks (bit longer than most). Make sure you keep some NO3 and PO4 (you are already it seems). Blacking out tank helped....temporarily. They came back. I did lose some zoas and birdsnest during my outbreak. Don't add any more corals until it's over.

One day I woke up and they were just "less". Next day better...and so on.

Oh..you may want to check your RODI for silicates...they make test kits. Just in case. That's what mostly drives diatoms...as far as I can tell. I didn't have any in my RODI...but it's worth looking at.

 

[actik]

well.. i am happy to know its diatom and nothing else, luckily my corals are simple and cheap. but it does suck when people come over and they're like wow... that tank is ugly hahha

 

[Rich Klein]

Yup! Diatoms. The scourge of new aquarists. Mine almost drove me crazy. As hard as this will seem...just wait 'em out. I thought about peroxide and other such...got some good advice on here to not do anything stupid. Eventually, long after they've destroyed your confidence and desire to continue in the hobby, they will go away. Mine lasted for 6-8 weeks (bit longer than most). Make sure you keep some NO3 and PO4 (you are already it seems). Blacking out tank helped....temporarily. They came back. I did lose some zoas and birdsnest during my outbreak. Don't add any more corals until it's over.

One day I woke up and they were just "less". Next day better...and so on.

+1. Patience. It can take a year or more for you tanks to stabilize. I am a bit surprised that you still have measurable ammonia though. Let your tank mature.

 

[Quietman]

Oh man, does that ever suck.

+1. Patience. It can take a year or more for you tanks to stabilize. I am a bit surprised that you still have measurable ammonia though. Let your tank mature.

API test kits are infamous for the slightly yellow 0 ammonia reading.

 

[Njbjr]

I had diatom problems in my tank. Turns out when I lose all my nitrates and phosphates they turned up. Do water change only enough to suck what you can off and wait it out.

 

[actik]

i wonder if that may be the issue, i was getting a little bit of diatom right before the water change, and then i purchased a water skimmer which works amazingly. Lack of nitrates?

 

[Quietman]

i wonder if that may be the issue, i was getting a little bit of diatom right before the water change, and then i purchased a water skimmer which works amazingly. Lack of nitrates?

I think that helps kick them off (did in my case - or not, who knows - but I had very low nitrates <1.0 and 0 phosphates). But once they show up...you need bacteria/corals to out compete (that's the theory anyway) so having some NO3 (3-5ppm) and PO4 (<0.1) is needed. Then again...that could just be something someone said that made me feel better.

 

[S.K.]

Diatom will go away. As long as you don't have any algae issue it will be fine. just make sure for water chemistry is balanced

 

[actik]

thanks everyone, yes unfortunitely i dont carry any of the more adv tests that people do like calcium and whatever else there is, trying to keep it real simple if you could tell by the 2 HOB filters lol