66g reef tank, no coral yet just a bunch of trochus, astrea, cerith, and 2 small tiger conchs and 2 red blood shrimp and 1McCoskers wrasse and Rainford's goby. Tanks been running since last October. Used dry life rock to start with a couple of inches of caribsea arag-alive ( thoroughly rinsed b4 adding to tank). Cycled by January, no algae problems until about 3 months ago started getting diatoms on sand in front and sides. At that time NH3 0, NO2 0, NO3 2-3ppm. PO4 0.09, Si ~0.5. Light feeding of fish. Weekly W/C of 20% , have a HOB Aquamaxx 1.5 skimmer hooked up to a BRS CO2 scrubber. For flow using 2 Nero 5 wave pumps at each end of tank, Random mode, antisync, Max flow - 67%, Min - 34% *Will be replacing them with 2 Maxspect xf330's in next 2 weeks . CUC only made a dent in diatoms. Forward to 3 weeks ago along with W/C removed top layer of sand that had the diatoms - kinda sticky stuff - and replaced with new arag-alive rinsed in RO/DI. Diatoms not present for week or so then last 8 days started coming back. Tonight checked parameters : Alk 7.1 , NO3 <1ppm ( Nyos test kit), PO4 = 53pbb = 0.053ppm (Hanna checker), Si = 0.03ppm ( Salifert). S.G = 1.025. Why is this stuff coming back? I know if u have silicates that can be a problem but at 0.03 really??!! * I use every 2 weeks Probido Bioclean bacteria - supposed to gobble up NH3, NO2, No3 and sems to be doing a very good job. *FTM using media reactor containing ROX carbon & Phosban. But since PO4 is very low I switched phosban & carbon with Chemipure Blue tonight. Lighting is an AP700 running at 34%, 18K for 6 hrs. with 1hr ramp up/down using ~20K.
Need help. Still having problems with diatoms!!
- Thread starter Johnny M
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Mastiffsrule
Where ever you go, there you are, so be nice 2 you
Afternoon,
Quick ? We sure it’s diatoms and not cyano or something else? Unless there is another source of silica being introduced they should have died off. Putting in the new sand could spark some new diatoms, but you had them befor the sand.
Maybe a pic would help.
Quick ? We sure it’s diatoms and not cyano or something else? Unless there is another source of silica being introduced they should have died off. Putting in the new sand could spark some new diatoms, but you had them befor the sand.
Maybe a pic would help.
