New tank theory with corals.

[Sm51498]

When a single species comes to dominate like this your options are: eradication, finding something that will eat it, or out compete it for a limiting factor.

In this case, eradication is impossible. No matter what you will have diatoms in your system. Every system does. Which leaves consumption or competition. I'm not aware of a fish that eats large quantities of diatoms, so that option is out, though some tiny organism might but purposefully introducing that seems unlikely. Which leads me to the out compete option.... thus my methodology.

 

[brandon429]

Thor

age of your tank doesn't matter for the reasons we've discussed although getting a forum of posters to agree down the line on it is a different issue

There's nothing wrong w your corals or tank

The benthic population changes have nothing to do with coral health we discussed productive systems that don't even use rock or substrate...we can do without them altogether
benthic animal population changes occur across systems always as part of steady state flux and corals can flourish independently shown on thousands of tanks only months old.


Uv does kill the organism since it has a pelagic phase, it's indicated here and shown effective in uv threads when it's sized correctly. It's easy to keep diatoms under control with manual cleaning and by starting off with a rinsed sandbed, free of silt, as we show in the tank correction threads regarding sandbed maintenance. At least you have multi options now, it says something about UV that all large zoos and public displays use them

Many tanks have ongoing diatom issues, we've tracked some out to two years going and they all have care methods in common that facilitate early growth and sustenance of diatoms, vs the tanks perpetually free of the issue or any other invasions.

It's much easier to disconsider UV when not having to work in tank correction threads where posters state live time what works and what doesn't

Theyre invaluable when tasked with cleaning up only ten different tanks with your issues and a strong recommend for you here based on correction threads


Cutting the lights and reducing feeding are coral challenge moves. Increasing feeding and export are coral boosting moves and the invaders on your sandbed have a water transition phase where uv intercept does work, as a biomass kill. Hand cleaning works to guide it out as a combo

I don't need uv on my smaller systems to be diatom free from the start because we clean the sandbed occasionally and for larger systems that's a challenge. All the more reason to start tanks with no silt/high surface area silicate as well. If you lifted up a handful of sand and dropped it down in the water I'm curious how prominent the cloud would be. For the tanks free of diatom issues, the drop test causes no clouding due to pre rinse

 

[Sm51498]

Increasing technological reliance, increases reliance on aquarist intervention by definition. Note that the examples given, public aquaria and research aquaria all have a surplus of human interaction. The less you rely on natural biological processes, the more you will have to rely on yourself to perform those tasks. This is a viable strategy, it definitely works, just keep it in mind.

Remember, if the uv solves your visible diatoms and it is an if, whatever nutrient they were utilizing will still be out of balance in your system. What will come to utilize that once the diatoms stop being prevalent?

 

[Oceansize]

For your diatoms issue, I would not recommend a UV.

Yes, I should have made clear, although I am a big fan of UV, I highly doubt it would be effective against diatoms. But it is very effective (in my case) at preventing algae blooms and maintaining a generally healthy tank.

 

[Oceansize]

Would u recommend a 25w or 40w for my 525xl??

What is the volume in gallons of a 525xl? If it's 525, I don't know that either would be enough.

 

[Thor2j]

What is the volume in gallons of a 525xl? If it's 525, I don't know that either would be enough.

525 liters, 139 gallons

 

[klp]

Since it happened after the sand bed was stirred and tap water used the increased nutrients seems to have thrown the tank out of balance.

I was thinking to possibly remove replace with well rinsed sand as I believe you said it was live sand that was not rinsed. Then add some bacteria. See if that helps if nothing else does. It would eliminate issues with the sand as a possibility. See what others think.

 

[427HISS]

Are diatoms natural in most reefs, like many algae's and even parasites ?

If you rinse "live sands", how much "good benificial bacteria's" will be lost ?

Would it be better to put you live sand in a container with strong water movment, a well working skimmer and a quality carbon to remove dying/dead bacteria, in the same maner as with "live rock" ?

 

[Thor2j]

Since it happened after the sand bed was stirred and tap water used the increased nutrients seems to have thrown the tank out of balance.

I was thinking to possibly remove replace with well rinsed sand as I believe you said it was live sand that was not rinsed. Then add some bacteria. See if that helps if nothing else does. It would eliminate issues with the sand as a possibility. See what others think.

Huh?????

No tap water and sand was added 5 months ago 2 hours after the water.