Diatoms

[Douglas grace]

I was wondering If I should wait to do water changes until diatoms have gone away because the salt mix would feed them but Idk

 

[James M]

If your tank is new don’t worry about them. They’ll go away with time

 

[Douglas grace]

If your tank is new don’t worry about them. They’ll go away with time

I know but shoyld I wait on the water changes or do them lije once a week

 

[cracker]

Can You vacuum some of it? Any fish or corals in there ? turn off the lights for a few days? that would help .Not sure if new water would feed the stuff.
any nutrients No3 Po4 ? Is the tank new ? Might have to wait it out .

 

[Douglas grace]

Can You vacuum some of it? turn off the lights for a few days? that would help .Not sure if new water would feed the stuff.
any nutrients No3 Po4 ?

Maybe a littlel phosphates but I havnt checked everything else is 0 I can brush and siphon it out but then I would ned to add more salt water which is why I was curious if the salt mix would feed it to much considering my tank is still new

 

[Tiger Brown]

I'm not sure why you think doing a water change will increase your algae growth. I have no idea what your tank parameters are, if it is cycled, any livestock, etc. but diatoms feed off nitrates, silicates, or phosphate which are all removed by completing a water change. James is also correct, if your tank is new it is a normal process to go through.

 

[cracker]

Ok Douglas, The tank is new.it's pretty much a given it will go thru a bunch of ugly phases as it matures. So that could very well be the case. IME , diatoms come when the tank has low to zero nutrients. If you don't have the teskits,is there an LFS that can test for No3/Po4 ? I bet they are very low. Also I did a lights out all I had was fish so they didn't care but the cyano & diatoms did.
If You can get those tests & a pic would be a big help. good luck

 

[Douglas grace]

My ammonia is 0 nitrites 0 nitrates around 0--5 phosphate s Idk right now but I use ro/di water. And salt mix contains sylicates which diatoms use to grow. Thats why I was wondering if I should do a water change and siphon them out or just wait for the diatoms to deplete the sylicates then do a water change once the original sylicates that were in my tank from starting it are gone. . ish

 

[Douglas grace]

My ammonia is 0 nitrites 0 nitrates around 0--5 phosphate s Idk right now but I use ro/di water. And salt mix contains sylicates which diatoms use to grow. Thats why I was wondering if I should do a water change and siphon them out or just wait for the diatoms to deplete the sylicates then do a water change once the original sylicates that were in my tank from starting it are gone. . ish

I really wouldn't be worried about but I got a tiny frag of gsp and I'm just trying to help it out

 

[flchamp89]

The WC and black out can help. You mentioned GSP so a reduction in intensity or duration of the photo period can help too. I have experienced good results with purigen. If your running a broke in skimmer a toothbrush helps. But patience is the key.

 

[lapin]

I was wondering If I should wait to do water changes until diatoms have gone away because the salt mix would feed them but Idk

Change the water. Get used to doing a 10% a week change. The tank and everything in it will also get used to the 10% change. It will not increase your diatoms unless you have very high silicates in your water. You use ro/di so no worries

 

[Douglas grace]

Change the water. Get used to doing a 10% a week change. The tank and everything in it will also get used to the 10% change. It will not increase your diatoms unless you have very high silicates in your water. You use ro/di so no worries

Sweet ty

 

[Sod Buster]

Get a 4 inch filter sock and holder to vacuum into. If you have a sump, vacuum through the sock, just don't overflow the sump. No sump, put the sock and holder on a bucket and vacuum through it, dump the water back in the tank. Wash the filter sock and let it dry. Continue with your 10% water changes every week. The sock method is to reuse the water between changes.