Help!! Diatoms!!

[marc hill]

hello everyone, I'm new to the saltwater hobby and I'm having a nightmare with diatoms.

I'm based in the UK andI have a fluval evo 13.5, this is my saltwater first tank. the tanks been set up since late December but I'm still having diatom issues. I get ready mixed salt water from my lfs, I have carib live Fiji pink live sand with live rock, I have a couple of fish, 2 turbo snails, 2 red hermits. I've added a strawberry conch at the weekend and he does a great job on the sandbed at night but during the day the diatoms come back again.

I do weekly water changes of around 20%.

I came home from work tonight and the brown is all over my live rock and glass now. I've been using gfo and yesterday I added a silicate remover.

I constantly test my water a my parameters are spot on.

I love my tank but this is getting me down, should I still be having diatoms this late on??

I would appreciate as much advice as possible

 

[Palyzoa]

Nothing to worry about, diatoms are really normal and part of all new systems. Just keep up with regular maintenance and let your CUC do what they do best. Try not to make to many changes to quickly. Consistency is key. Welcome to R2R!

 

[marc hill]

Hi Palyzoa

Are they normal even after being set up for 5 months?

 

[GoVols]

Hi Palyzoa

Are they normal even after being set up for 5 months?

Maybe...

Do you use an RO/DI unit (with an built in TDS meter) for your water changes and top off water?

Can you post some pictures (with just the whites on) so we can see, that it is diatoms?

Also:
Welcome to the Reef 2 Reef, family!!

 

[mitch91175]

I'd say test your water from your LFS for phosphates, nitrates, etc. You may be best just getting your own RO/DI unit. You won't need to make much water so your filters will last you quite a long time. A lot of LFS are notorious for selling bad RO/DI water. I know someone that runs an LFS and he doesn't even know when to replace his filters yet

I say to myself, "I'd never buy his water if it was the last water on planet earth "

 

[marc hill]

Maybe...

Do you use an RO/DI unit (with an built in TDS meter) for your water changes and top off water?

Can you post some pictures (with just the whites on) so we can see, that it is diatoms?

Also:
Welcome to the Reef 2 Reef, family!!

I buy my water pre mixed from my lfs.

I'll see if I can post some pics when I get home from work.

 

[marc hill]

Maybe...

Do you use an RO/DI unit (with an built in TDS meter) for your water changes and top off water?

Can you post some pictures (with just the whites on) so we can see, that it is diatoms?

Also:
Welcome to the Reef 2 Reef, family!!

 

[PatW]

That is a bit unsightly but it isn’t a severe infestation.

 

[marc hill]

That is a bit unsightly but it isn’t a severe infestation.

It covers the live rock too. Is it normal for a tank that's been set up for almost 5 months?

 

[brandon429]

a reef that small can be taken apart, cleaned to the bottom glass, put back with cloudless rinsed sand, and work perfectly uninvaded as if it was never allowed to build up

its important to know that no form of harm, lifespan shortening, increased disease risk, any worry you can imagine can come from working to keep a tank too clean (I didn't say underfed, key detail here)

but you w certainly have risks later on if you didn't know you can just take that tank apart and put it back together glistening white sand any time you want


when gha grows on the rocks, you have the option to leave it or kill it within 24 hours, it depends on how you want to work your chess pieces. you can tell im hinting at a system that allows no takeover at any time because we just will it clean and force it to comply

take apart cleaning isn't some risk that some tanks survive and some tanks do not. all tanks relish it when done correctly because it flushes out filthy oxygen consuming organic deposits and replaces them with aerated pockets of clean water and substrates that aren't crudded up with waste. if you reached in a grabbed a hand of that sand and dropped it down, a massive waste cloud would result.

that doesn't hurt now, but later its reef saving to know you can reverse that invasion fuel potential. the procedures are simple and ordered, no harm.

 

[brandon429]

the answer about presence truly doesn't revolve around the age of the tank. our method doesn't take into consideration a param, a measure, an age, origins of rock, you can just make it go away if you want is the point


all invaders in a nano are like that, secret of the millenia

large reefs have to take their invasions...too big to opt out.

must dose then hope


I know how crazy this sounds but thinking in reverse is how nano reef keepers with the oldest nano reefs in the world run them, we literally tell the reef what to do and it does it while large setups struggle. not being >5 gal elitist heh set up a reef jar to see or lets just run this reef above like a reef jar and pack it out with coral/have no invasions ever at any time and make it ideal.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

I got my lawnmower blenny that keep my sand super clean. Also, I had a little on the glass and I use Vibrant and in after 2 hours my water is super clear and no diatoms.

 

[GoVols]

I got my lawnmower blenny that keep my sand super clean. Also, I had a little on the glass and I use Vibrant and in after 2 hours my water is super clear and no diatoms.

An Diamond goby will keep an sand bed white as snow too, but you better have an screen top.
Them guys are jumpers..