Diatoms? Just let it run its course?

[blalaw87]

Good Evening,

I have had my tank up and running for about 6 months or so and has been doing well for the most part. I went through some GHA and I think some initial diatoms to start and got a cleaning crew and GHA is all gone but diatoms seemed like they always lingered but for the most part were away complete with a few spots on algae on the sand bed here and there. I have always had my lights (Red Sea LED 90) set at 70-80 Blue and 10-20% whites. Since I have started adding some corals LPS, and Soft Corals the past couple months I kept it at that but recently decided to bump it up. The corals were not doing bad but I figured I just didn't have the lights high enough. So I bumped it up to the Red Sea Profile of 20K this week. That is Running at 100% Blues and 50% Whites.

Once I did that this week I start seeing the algae come back more and it seems like the glass is getting dirtier a lot quicker as well. On the glass it is almost like a powder and comes off really easily and just floats away. I also recently added 2 new pieces of dry rock about a month ago then waiting another 2 weeks and added two more pieces. I plan on adding some more to fill out the aquascape a little more since I started out with live rock. I also verified my TDS coming out of my RO is at 0.

From my understanding Diatoms are caused by silicate and that is what they feed off of. I was thinking of doing a couple things and wondering if I should or just let it run its course?

• Upping my water changes. Right now I only do a water change roughly once every 2 - 3 weeks. Should I go ahead and up that to every week for now?
  • Should I stir up the sand a little in sections before I do a water change to suck some of it out?
• Should I be turning over the sand so the diatoms get in the filtered out through the filter floss
• I currently am just running one bag of Chemipure elite bags in my sump. Should I do more than that to help with the silicates?
• I know that flow can help. Right now I have two Reefwave 25's in my tank mounted on the back wall. Should I move them to the side to help with flow? One on the right side about 3/4 of the way up the tank for higher up and then another on the left side about 1/4 of the way up to focus more flow on the sand bed?
• Should I do a blackout for 3-7 days or just let it run its course to all the silcates have been consumed?
• I have also recently sent out a ICP test before all of this happened so I think I should get some more information back from that.

I did test my parameters on Sunday but have not tested them since then just yet:

Nitrate - 5ppm (NYOS)
Calcium - 420 ppm (Salifert)
Alk - 7.2 dKH (Hannah)
Phosphate - .18 (Hannah ULR)
Salinity - 1.026
PH - 8.2


Any advice is always appreciated. Thanks for the help!

 

[Spare time]

I would just consider using some phosphate and silicate remover. That way you can fix both issues at once.

 

[Lavey29]

Nice tank, we have similar set up and tank age. I experienced various diatoms also throughout the months. Lights are key to diatoms. Limit your duration and intensity and cut white to like 5%. Run mainly blue and uv.

What are your water parameters?

 

[blalaw87]

My parameters as of last Sunday are and I am planning taking more measurements tomorrow.

Nitrate - 5ppm (NYOS)
Calcium - 420 ppm (Salifert)
Alk - 7.2 dKH (Hannah)
Phosphate - .18 (Hannah ULR)
Salinity - 1.026
PH - 8.2

 

[Lavey29]

My parameters as of last Sunday are and I am planning taking more measurements tomorrow.

Nitrate - 5ppm (NYOS)
Calcium - 420 ppm (Salifert)
Alk - 7.2 dKH (Hannah)
Phosphate - .18 (Hannah ULR)
Salinity - 1.026
PH - 8.2

Numbers look fine so you can let it runs its course or maybe cut lights as stated above to minimize it. Once silcates are gone it will disappear.

 

[kittenbritches]

My parameters as of last Sunday are and I am planning taking more measurements tomorrow.

Nitrate - 5ppm (NYOS)
Calcium - 420 ppm (Salifert)
Alk - 7.2 dKH (Hannah)
Phosphate - .18 (Hannah ULR)
Salinity - 1.026
PH - 8.2

Your phosphates are a bit on the high side. I'd run GFO -- it removes phosphate and silicate.