Diatom?

[Newbie1]

Ok so I cured my rock work and everything is going well. I have a few fish and snails in the tank. I want to add substrate now. Will this start a whole new diatom process over?

 

[mta_morrow]

Ok so I cured my rock work and everything is going well. I have a few fish and snails in the tank. I want to add substrate now. Will this start a whole new diatom process over?

Most likely it will due to excess silicates being added again.

Good new is they go away!

 

[Scurvy]

Yep, that new sand will most certainly run through a diatom stage as well.

 

[Lorenzo Angotti]

Hi, Diatoms will not grow in your tank unless you have silicates in your water. So long as you use good RO/DI water for your topping off and water changes, the diatoms will go away in time , Diatoms is not a bad thing types of snails, Copepods even fish will feed on it. It will come and go but I wouldn’t worry to much!, you can sometimes position your wave pumps to blow sufficiently just to move it of the sand without blasting the sand everywhere, that is if you are having substrate.

 

[Newbie1]

Is it bad to run with no substrate? Do people do that? Or if I do add substrate does this mean I need to hold off on adding fish and anemones?

 

[Taylor S.]

Is it bad to run with no substrate? Do people do that? Or if I do add substrate does this mean I need to hold off on adding fish and anemones?

If you have adequate rock I don’t see why that can’t act as your main filtration

 

[flchamp89]

I would wait a good while before adding an anemone. Once tank is stable and all new uglies have passed and your other corals are growing well along with Coraline then think anemone.