Diatoms during cycle

[Letterkenny]

I’m at that fun diatom stage of my tank presumably feeding off of the sand or dry rock silicates. Do these brown diatoms also consume phosphates? I ask because, well, I can’t seem to show any on my test kits with nitrates sitting at 7.5. My corals look fine but my chaeto is also melting making me think that I’m just low on phosphates but wanted to see if the diatoms would be consuming them fast enough to produce a zero reading on phosphates vs actually not having phosphates.

 

[BruceLeeroy]

I had the same issue with chaeto melt pretty sure it’s lack of micro nutes

 

[Flippers4pups]

I’m at that fun diatom stage of my tank presumably feeding off of the sand or dry rock silicates. Do these brown diatoms also consume phosphates? I ask because, well, I can’t seem to show any on my test kits with nitrates sitting at 7.5. My corals look fine but my chaeto is also melting making me think that I’m just low on phosphates but wanted to see if the diatoms would be consuming them fast enough to produce a zero reading on phosphates vs actually not having phosphates.

Have you tested for P04? If is new, I wouldn't run any macro algae at this point in refugium.

 

[Letterkenny]

Have you tested for P04? If is new, I wouldn't run any macro algae at this point in refugium.

Yes, as stated above I am not showing any. I did a heavy reef roid feeding and had a measurement of 0.04 for one day but that went away by day 2 post feeding. My main question is if the diatoms will consume PO4 thus giving me false 0 readings or if I should feed more/dose phosphates to get that up.