Diatom growth on your glass.

Jbryan243 · May 5, 2016

I recently I traveled from home for two weeks and upon my return I noticed that I had very little if any diatom growth on my glass and still don’t after three weeks. My wife had or has not run the magnet across or cleaned the glass in any way. This isn’t the norm at all, usually I clean the glass every 3 days. Not a bad thing but I hate it when you have unexplained “changes” and was wondering if anyone else had experienced this?

Water parameters/Tank info;

· 80 gallon Blue sea

· Reef Octopus skimmer

· Tank has been up and running for 5 years.

· Bare Bottom

· 30 gallon sump (not refugium)

· Only 3 fish but loaded mixed from softies to some SPS and montipora, oh and one big H. carpet anemone, 17” across.

· DKH 8.3 (Normal for this tank)

· Cal 420 (Normal)

· Salinity 1.026 (Normal)

· I never check any other parameters like NO3 or 4.

My 90 gallon had it's normal growth FWIW.

CastAway · May 5, 2016

Start any carbon dose lately? Add any bacteria?
I experienced something similar with not having to clean my glass just after starting start a carbon source and increasing bacterial growth.

maroun.c · May 5, 2016

I notice that as well when I travel which is also related to added skimmate production when I'm on travel. The only explanation I could come up with is the lack of having my hands in the tank which causes my skimmer foam production to drop. As I have observed larger skimmers foma production tends to drop more and for more time than smaller skimmer.
Not sure if having an oversized skimmer might be also contributing to this even more.

Jbryan243 · May 6, 2016

I haven't changed anything and usually we complain about the opposite happening while away right. Something dies or stops working and we come home to a mess but never an ultra clean tank.

Jbryan243 · May 9, 2016

Have a thought concerning the thread on R2R about micro bubbles and wonder what opinions might be out there about what I’m about to theorize;

As I had said in the beginning about not cleaning my glass for weeks there was another issue occurring at the same time that I thought to be a non-issue, all my algae has faded away. As I had said, I never test No3 or Po4 so this is all a guess at this point. Now we all know what also can happen with/to zooxanthellae if dissolved organics or Po4 drops too quickly, bleaching and yep I have a little bleaching occurring on some inverts.

· Tongue plate; not bad but there.

· Some bleaching but recovering on my branching hammers.

· What little “SPS” I have some bleaching but some looking better (color wise and PE)

· Aussie torch, looking real good.

· Candy canes, looking real good.

· “Purple plate” montipora, not so good.

· “Orange” plate montipora looking good.

· “Green” plate montipora looking good.

· Oh and the leathers, looking real good.

· Carpet anemone looking fantastic, it’s immortal anyway!

· Sorry, I don’t keep up with the “real names”.

So the theory. My over flow level had changed (lowered) just prior to my departure which allowed the return nozzle’s siphon break (that little hole) to shoot water into the overflow which created an enormous amount bubbles in the overflow. I didn’t fix it because I didn’t want something weird to go wrong while away. (Return pump; 900 GPH and with the head pressure I would guess 750 to 800 GPH actual)

Wondering about this I created a similar situation in my 90 gallon which could possibly prove/disprove that a situation such as this may actually remove dissolved organics and possibly po4? I ran a stone in my 90’s overflow and honestly it scared me to leave more than three days and I could swear my blue tip stag looks lighter, it’s a very nice colony that I wish not to hurt. BTW, no I haven’t had to clean the glass while I ran the stone in the 90, makes me wonder.

Could the bubbles in the overflow trap these compounds which then get trapped by the skimmer easier or maybe even the filter socks?