Thanks. I'll check out microscopes on Amazon. Didn't know they were that cheap. For feeding @Magellan said I should feed less. R u saying feed frozen only? I do feed frozen. Should I try a tuxedo urchin again? Do they eat diatoms? As for coral I wanted to get fish in 1st then corals. So far I have a McCosker's wrasse and a Rainford's goby. I'll be adding at end of week from qt a bangaii cardinal & forktail blenny. Then eventually a royal gramma, 2 spot blenny and lastly a pair of clownfish. I also just purchased & setting up a IM nuvo fusion 25g lagoon tank exclusively for quarantine of corals. BB with frag racks. Will seed it with a few Marine pure cubes from 66g tank that have been in it since started.
**NEED HELP : still having problem with diatoms
- Thread starter Johnny M
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I'm guessing you have very little or no green algae growth? How do your rocks look? Your maintenance scheduled/filtration is really aggressive, I doubt its a nutrient import problem (double check source water for phos/silicates?). Silicates is the likely culprit if its diatoms, lack of bio-diversity and very low nutrients if its dinos. Either way it seems to me the tank is under fed and under stocked. If it isn't dinos add corals, the tank is ready for them, get some organisms besides bacteria and algae that can consume your fish poop!
I think we have a really similar philosophy with quarantining everything and trying to keep everything perfect. So when I set up my tank I did the same thing, and I think it slowed down the maturing of my tank significantly, my nitrates were very low and all I could grow was brown algae. Once I got my nitrates up to around 5ppm (phos between .05-.1) coralline algae and green film algae started to grow instead.
edit: just rechecked and saw you addressed the TDS on your rodi water, I'm a bit ocd so I got a 2nd TDS meter and sent out a ICP test on my rodi water to triple check (it was 0 tds).
Rocks look good. No noticable algae. Snails appear to be doing great job on rocks. As in 1st post NO3- >1ppm PO4- .o3ppm (hanna checker ulr), Si-
.03ppm (salifert). Have coraline algae starting to grow. Source water 0tds. Wouldn't my tiger conch's & nassarius snails consume the fish poop? Should I add nitrate to raise it up to 2-3ppm? And phosphate too a little? I have Vibrant No3 & PO4 liquid from UWC to increase them?
Magellan
2500 Club Member
I went back and read through your posts, and noticed you don’t have any hermit crabs. They are very useful for me and find all the extra food no matter where it ends up, and can move around a lot more than snails (dragging their shells around in the sandbed helps too, I wake up in the morning to perfect groomed sand!) How much you feed your fish is up to you, not so many years ago there were people on these forums who fed their fish once every 3 days! (Probably still are lol). However, it definitely seems like you need a larger bio load to balance out your ecosystem.
Also, sorry to hear about the urchins! You can clip a piece of seaweed in their path to feed them if they don’t have enough algae to eat.
Depends, if its dinos absolutely raise nutrients, if not you are probably fine just dont let them bottom out to zero. If you aren't importing silicates via your rodi water then the diatoms will consume all of them and then die off, I'd suggest doing nothing in that case, besides continuing to stock your tank with live stock. I like running higher than 1 ppm nitrate but it doesn't really matter unless the low no3 is hurting your corals.
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Type of water, lack of water flow and overfeeding will be contributors.
Not sure how much coral you have but a three day blackout will help reduce the issue.
Not sure how much coral you have but a three day blackout will help reduce the issue.
I have 2 nero 5 pumps on opposite ends on random anti sync mode set to 60% max flow. Any higher & will start blowing sand around. Plan on switching Nero 5's to maxspect xf330s in a week or so to get a wider spread of flow. I don't have corals yet but tried a 5 day blackout couple months ago. It did help get rid of about 90% of diatoms but within a few days after turning lights back on diatoms started growing over sandbed again.
I thought of hermit crabs but lfs said they will kill snails for their shells even if u put in extra shells. Other reefers in my club use either all snails or all crabs. I have 2 small tiger conch's, maybe I should get 1 or 2 more to help with stirring up sandbed even more. *I've heard of "micro crabs" ( forget what they're officially called ) that that stay under 1/2". Maybe should try some since their too small to bother snails.
Last edited:
Magellan
2500 Club Member
My largest hermit crab definitely lives in a snail shell, but I’m not sure if he killed it and took the shell or if the snail just died and then he scavenged it. Either way, snails and crabs are really cheap and really useful, and mine have coexisted for a long time now. (I do have extra shells just in case).
I bring you good news and bad news.
The bad news is that diatoms are just part of the maturation process of your new ecosystem. I am sure they bug you as much as the did me for the first 8? 9? 10? months with my newest tank which began with 6 yr old rock and live sand.
The good news is they will eventually exhaust themselves to the point where they are hardly noticeable. But it takes time.
Advice you may not want to hear: leave them be. Stay on top of your husbandry, the condition of your equipment, your preparedness for vacations, power outages, and everything you can do to maintain stable temps, salinity, ALK, NO3 and PO4 from now to the finale.
Sure, you could strip out the silicates, but this will upset the process. The void left by diatoms will be filled by other organisms. It is really hard to guess who will fill it, but it will be filled. If you're unlucky it will be amphidium or a more toxic variety of dinoflagellates. And then you will be dosing silicates, running UV, dosing NO3 & PO4 trying to get your diatoms back along with some cyano and nuisance algae. I been there; it ain't fun.
You describe an excellent husbandry routine and solid equipment list IMO. Add a turkey baster and blow the sand around when you cannot take it anymore. Enjoy.
The bad news is that diatoms are just part of the maturation process of your new ecosystem. I am sure they bug you as much as the did me for the first 8? 9? 10? months with my newest tank which began with 6 yr old rock and live sand.
The good news is they will eventually exhaust themselves to the point where they are hardly noticeable. But it takes time.
Advice you may not want to hear: leave them be. Stay on top of your husbandry, the condition of your equipment, your preparedness for vacations, power outages, and everything you can do to maintain stable temps, salinity, ALK, NO3 and PO4 from now to the finale.
Sure, you could strip out the silicates, but this will upset the process. The void left by diatoms will be filled by other organisms. It is really hard to guess who will fill it, but it will be filled. If you're unlucky it will be amphidium or a more toxic variety of dinoflagellates. And then you will be dosing silicates, running UV, dosing NO3 & PO4 trying to get your diatoms back along with some cyano and nuisance algae. I been there; it ain't fun.
You describe an excellent husbandry routine and solid equipment list IMO. Add a turkey baster and blow the sand around when you cannot take it anymore. Enjoy.
