Is this diatoms?

[Rglad91]

so I’ve been reading and searching through all these threads but I’m still lost

My tank is about 5 months old which makes me believe it’s diatoms but I’m no expert. It doesn’t help everything I read seems to be all over the place

It’s hard to get a good picture let alone it looks way different in person. The 2 bottom pictures are close ups of top right area in first picture, one without camera flash and one with the flash

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Sort of looks like diatoms to me. Keep an eye on your nitrates and try to get them to stay consistent, the diatoms should subside with time.

 

[Rglad91]

It started about one month after initial setup and has slowly got to this hear being the worst it’s looked. I’m thinking I might need more cuc

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

It started about one month after initial setup and has slowly got to this hear being the worst it’s looked. I’m thinking I might need more cuc

I would get more critters to help with the sand bed, nassy and cerith snails are a good starting point.

 

[Rglad91]

I got atleast 24 nassarius and maybe a dozen cerith and a dozen or so of a mix of others. I removed two zebra turbos cause they were bulldozing frags over. I’m thinking I need a lot more snails.

 

[don_chuwish]

The diatoms will go away on their own with time. But if you put in too many snails there may be a lot that die of starvation.

 

[Absolutekind]

Do you use RO/DI water with 0 TDS? Also, you can test for silicates (Salifert makes a test) that feed diatoms to know for sure.

 

[Rglad91]

Yah my ro/di reads 0 with two different testers. But I do need a booster cause it’s only putting out about 35psi.