Diatoms Diatoms Diatoms

[nick654377]

Our tank is a little over 2 months old. We have a good amount of corals in there and we are having a major diatom outbreak. I am checking parameters every other day to make sure everything is in check and we have had no swings. I have had higher than I would like po4 but other than that nothing is way out of wack.

Temp: 78
pH: 8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate: 20
Cal: 450
Mag: 1350
Alk: 9.5-9.8
po4: 0.12-0.15

We do not have a sump but are running a Tidal 75 with a polishing pad, Bio Pad, Seachem matrix, Chemipure Elite ( Just ordered a blue and phosgaurd to add in there). We have a reef octo Classic 100 that I clean out every other day to every 3 days depending on how I feel.

Diatoms are getting bad to where they are growing on the skeletons of our candy canes, Dead heads on our torch, and now starting to cover our Chalice. What can I do! I know its still a young tank but I feel there has to be something to help. We have 3 Mexican turbo snails, a yellow tang, we cannot add any cleaner shrimp as we have a blue spotted puffer but our blood shrimp actually cleans him. I am at a loss and do not know what else I can do.

We do not have room on our tank for a fuge.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Do you run RODI? HOB fuge may work? A UV Sterilizer ended my Diatom issue.

 

[nick654377]

Do you run RODI? HOB fuge may work? A UV Sterilizer ended my Diatom issue.

Yes we run a RO/DI. We do not have room for a HOB Fuge. I wish we did but there is no room. I am half tempted to ditch the filter and run a fuge and skimmer only.

 

[Coxey81]

Our tank is a little over 2 months old. We have a good amount of corals in there and we are having a major diatom outbreak. I am checking parameters every other day to make sure everything is in check and we have had no swings. I have had higher than I would like po4 but other than that nothing is way out of wack.

Temp: 78
pH: 8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate: 20
Cal: 450
Mag: 1350
Alk: 9.5-9.8
po4: 0.12-0.15

We do not have a sump but are running a Tidal 75 with a polishing pad, Bio Pad, Seachem matrix, Chemipure Elite ( Just ordered a blue and phosgaurd to add in there). We have a reef octo Classic 100 that I clean out every other day to every 3 days depending on how I feel.

Diatoms are getting bad to where they are growing on the skeletons of our candy canes, Dead heads on our torch, and now starting to cover our Chalice. What can I do! I know its still a young tank but I feel there has to be something to help. We have 3 Mexican turbo snails, a yellow tang, we cannot add any cleaner shrimp as we have a blue spotted puffer but our blood shrimp actually cleans him. I am at a loss and do not know what else I can do.

We do not have room on our tank for a fuge.

Diatoms are common in all new tanks. They need silicates to grow.

Silicates come from three sources mainly.

1. Rock... mainly dry rock.
2. Sand...
3. And water.

If you are running rodi, your tds is 0 coming out, and your di canisister (if color changing) is less than 4/5 used you shouldn't have any silicates in your water.

Most likely source is sand, especially if that's where they are growing.

You'll just have to be patient and wait them out. The silicates will eventually all be used up and they will go away as long as you keep putting in clean water.

Part of the new tank uglies.

 

[flashsmith]

Diatoms at 2 months means everything is moving along as it should. They will go away in 2 to 3 weeks on their own. A UV sterilizer helps as they are attracted to the light source more than anything. Use a turkey baster to blow them off your sand bed and Corals. This will suspend them and they will go through your filter. I'm not sure on your filter type but change the floss/pad daily to help get them out of your system. Typically when the lights go out they disappear into the sand bed. Blow them off before lights out and change filter pads first thing the next morning.