Diatoms?

[JWHITESP88]

Hey guys, new to the forums and also new to reefs. I have a couple of questions. I converted my 40b to saltwater almost 7 weeks ago. I started the tank with about 30lbs of cured live rock, and 40lbs carib sea live sand. I am running a bio wheel with active carbon, HOB Odyssea ps75 skimmer, a 700gph and 200 gph power head and 2 tao tronics 165w dimmable units. I cycled the tank with no fish and it took about 24 days to get my params to 0 amm, 0 nitrite, and 20 nitrate. I had a diatom bloom during that time that went away. As of today my params are 0 amm, 0 nitrite, 5 nitrate, 0 phos,. My question is I came home today after working out of town yesterday and I had a light dusting of diatoms on the sand bed and a few on the powerheads as well as a small patch on the inside of the skimmer body. My wife did forget to turn the lights on yesterday so the tank did not have lights on since 9PM on Sunday. I turned them back on about 1PM today, Tuesday. Any thoughts?

 

[Mandrew]

Maybe it's time for a clean up crew? Algae is pretty common in new tanks. I'd say keep up with your water changes and it should go away on it's own. But snails and hermits help a lot with algae and eating leftover bits of food.

 

[JWHITESP88]

Thanks man I appreciate it, I failed to mention livestock. I have 2 peppermint shrimp, 2 turbo snails, a pair of clowns and a green chromis. I will look into adding to my cleanup crew.

 

[ninjabeaver]

diatom blooms are common in young tanks...make sure your water and ATO water is good ro/di with 0 TDS

 

[Mandrew]

I would suggest www.reefcleaners.org
If you email them what you have or plan to keep they will create a custom clean up crew for you for free then you just place the order. Or they have quick crews that ship for free and you just select your tank dimensions on the list and all the cleaners are preselected.

 

[ninjabeaver]

I would suggest www.reefcleaners.org
If you email them what you have or plan to keep they will create a custom clean up crew for you for free then you just place the order. Or they have quick crews that ship for free and you just select your tank dimensions on the list and all the cleaners are preselected.

good idea, he always gives you more than you order too

 

[Mandrew]

Yes reefcleaners is awesome! Won't get clean up crew anywhere else again. They also sell macro algae and dry rock, which I plan to Order from them for my 90g build here soon

 

[JWHITESP88]

Beaver I do not have an RODI unit as of yet but that is the next piece of equipment in the plans. I am buying RODI from my local supermarket so I hope that this is not the problem. Thank you Mandrew. I have not seen this website but looks like it could be very useful in my situation.

 

[ninjabeaver]

Yes reefcleaners is awesome! Won't get clean up crew anywhere else again. They also sell macro algae and dry rock, which I plan to Order from them for my 90g build here soon

nice I want a 93 gal cube for my next tank.

 

[Mandrew]

On top of that, if you order a quick crew with hermits, you can add anything else from the site to your order with free shipping