Do these diatoms ever go away!!!!?

[mpjmeyer]

I'm new to saltwater and added my first pair of clowns on Feb. 26th after my tanks nitrites read 0. About 2 weeks ago, diatoms took over the tank and I'm already tired of looking at them. I have a total of 10 snails in the tank along with a shrimp to help clean up but the diatoms don't seem to go away. I took a water sample to my lfs because I was about to get a reactor to help but my phosphates read 0 so they said it wasn't necessary and to just wait but again, there is no sign in them dissipating. Here is my light schedule...


How long do these typically last??

 

[ridetheducati]

Can you confirm they are diatoms?

 

[brandon429]

lets see pics

we control diatoms in all nano reefs and pico reefs just by rinsing the initial sandbed massively before tank is setup with life on top of the bed and making sure the new lighting is blue heavy vs white heavy. If you were to reach in and grab a handful of sand, then drop it down in the tank, would it cloud massively?

 

[mpjmeyer]

I'm not sure. It looks like brown algae. This pic was taken a couple weeks ago. It's much worse now

 

[brandon429]

that picture reveals a lot, the surfaces are not coralline and coral flesh yet, which are bioexcluders to diatoms yes they w go away eventually. your blue/white balance is at play as predicted.

the perfect sand rinsing we just do initially in prediction of them, and in early control but its not required. its a way of suppressing them by having no silt/silicate in easy supply. Options include repeated hand siphoning of them out, installing a UV filter for just this kind of cheat (doesn't have to be run 24 7) and dimming those lights massively until some corals require the current intensity.

 

[mpjmeyer]

I'm going to run this light schedule for a couple days....would it help?

 

[mpjmeyer]

I can post more up to date pictures later this evening.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Two weeks isn't that long for diatoms.

 

[brandon429]

I just barely got into LED a year ago am unable to read that chart lol! my current led use is limited to kessil on/kessil off 9 hours later thats about it.

half intensity and more blue than white on those adjustable setups + a few good rounds of hand siphoning to guide them out = good to go

 

[jsker]

I just barely got into LED a year ago am unable to read that chart lol! my current led use is limited to kessil on/kessil off 9 hours later thats about it.

half intensity and more blue than white on those adjustable setups + a few good rounds of hand siphoning to guide them out = good to go

+1
Good advice.

I just turn down my whites from 46% to 35 at the highest point for the reason of controlling algae

 

[brandon429]

mine is the same. I can drive this strange filamentous brown algae in or out of my tank just by rotating the white/vs blue setting on the kessil and giving it a week to adjust on the system plant balance. on algae correction threads we starting seeing a massive correlation to mega bright white/production level lighting and algae in tanks that had a very low coral command for that much light.

I prefer the look and photographs of the 10K setting moreso for my reef, but can't take the cleaning work. I run the blue much higher than the white (no controller so I can't talk kelvin specifics) and the algae is no more prob

 

[Lionfish Lair]

But we don't have a problem here yet... it has to go through this even if everything is perfect. I wouldn't fiddle too much at this point.

 

[brandon429]

agreed, no harm if let in place, no harm if burnt out/UV or hand removed its all pref driven. the diatoms I don't find harmful if someone wants to have them, its the anchored algae I cannot stand as a cycling inclusion!

 

[Breakthecycle2]

Vibrant. Dose that stuff and it will be gone in a day.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Please don't put anything in your tank yet to combat something that is normal and transient.

 

[mpjmeyer]

Here are my intensities from 12:20 to about 8:00

 

[mpjmeyer]

I'm going to switch to the coral lab ab+ schedule and see if I can extinguish these diatoms.

 

[salty150]

1/4 teaspoon of Fleischmann's RapidRise Yeast per 400 gallons (total water volume) - every other day.

It will be gone in a week.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2585982