Why are my diatoms not going away?

[Reef Devils]

my tank is almost 4 months old now. I have been dealing with a lot of diatoms is the past 4 weeks. I know it can take a long to to go away and it is part of the cycle. My LFS gave me some PhosGuard to remove Silicate. I think Silicate is what the diatoms feed on. In the morning there is nothing on the sand but by the end of the day it is all back. Any suggestion or should I just wait it out. Should I take out the PhosGuard?

 

[Dan_P]

my tank is almost 4 months old now. I have been dealing with a lot of diatoms is the past 4 weeks. I know it can take a long to to go away and it is part of the cycle. My LFS gave me some PhosGuard to remove Silicate. I think Silicate is what the diatoms feed on. In the morning there is nothing on the sand but by the end of the day it is all back. Any suggestion or should I just wait it out. Should I take out the PhosGuard?

Diatoms are an algae and their growth responds to the same things as algae. The difference is they need silicate to grow. Having silicate alone is not enough for diatom growth. Inorganic nitrogen and phosphate are also needed. What is the system’s nitrate/nitrite/ammonia and phosphate levels? Also, how did you confirm the organism is a diatom?

 

[Reef Devils]

Diatoms are an algae and their growth responds to the same things as algae. The difference is they need silicate to grow. Having silicate alone is not enough for diatom growth. Inorganic nitrogen and phosphate are also needed. What is the system’s nitrate/nitrite/ammonia and phosphate levels? Also, how did you confirm the organism is a diatom?

Nitrate and phosphate are 0.0. Well I have a friend who know a lot about this stuff and he said it is diatoms. I think it is diatoms and idk what else it could be.

 

[Lavey29]

You don't want bottomed out nutrients or you open the door for dinos which is what you might have instead of diatoms. Pics under white light will help.

Your RODI can also have silicate in it and moving it into your tank.

 

[helmsreef]

Sounds like dinos to me, using phosguard to pull all your phosphate will just create more exponential issues if you do have dinos. Post pictures if you can

 

[blaxsun]

OP, maybe post an image or two.

 

[hexcolor reef]

Did you just set the tank up? If so it’s a cycle that needs to happen which could take months or longer depending certain variables.

Shorten the light period or sift through top sand daily

 

[Dan_P]

Diatoms are an algae and their growth responds to the same things as algae. The difference is they need silicate to grow. Having silicate alone is not enough for diatom growth. Inorganic nitrogen and phosphate are also needed. What is the system’s nitrate/nitrite/ammonia and phosphate levels? Also, how did you confirm the organism is a diatom?

Could you post a picture under white light of your diatoms?

 

[CoralB]

Nitrate and phosphate are 0.0. Well I have a friend who know a lot about this stuff and he said it is diatoms. I think it is diatoms and idk what else it could be.

Get your nitrates and phosphates up . Never let those zero out or it will open the door to Dino’s which is way worse then diatoms and stop using phosguard .

 

[Reef Devils]

Could you post a picture under white light of your diatoms?

 

[Reef Devils]

OP, maybe post an image or two.

 

[Reef Devils]

Sounds like dinos to me, using phosguard to pull all your phosphate will just create more exponential issues if you do have dinos. Post pictures if you can

 

[Reef Devils]

You don't want bottomed out nutrients or you open the door for dinos which is what you might have instead of diatoms. Pics under white light will help.

Your RODI can also have silicate in it and moving it into your tank.

 

[Reef Devils]

Diatoms are an algae and their growth responds to the same things as algae. The difference is they need silicate to grow. Having silicate alone is not enough for diatom growth. Inorganic nitrogen and phosphate are also needed. What is the system’s nitrate/nitrite/ammonia and phosphate levels? Also, how did you confirm the organism is a diatom?

 

[Lavey29]

Appears to be diatoms. You have a moderately deep sandbed which may be why they have hung around longer but I would also get your RODI tested for silicate. This was the source of my dinos until I installed a spectrapure silicate buster DI filter on my RODI system. Now have 0 silica there. Diatoms don't really hurt anything in the tank and various cleaners eat it along with pods.

 

[Reef Devils]

Appears to be diatoms. You have a moderately deep sandbed which may be why they have hung around longer but I would also get your RODI tested for silicate. This was the source of my dinos until I installed a spectrapure silicate buster DI filter on my RODI system. Now have 0 silica there. Diatoms don't really hurt anything in the tank and various cleaners eat it along with pods.

How do I test for silicate in my RODI

 

[Lavey29]

How do I test for silicate in my RODI

I get it done with my ICP test quarterly

 

[Dan_P]

my tank is almost 4 months old now. I have been dealing with a lot of diatoms is the past 4 weeks. I know it can take a long to to go away and it is part of the cycle. My LFS gave me some PhosGuard to remove Silicate. I think Silicate is what the diatoms feed on. In the morning there is nothing on the sand but by the end of the day it is all back. Any suggestion or should I just wait it out. Should I take out the PhosGuard?

I saw the pics you posted of your diatoms. This is very aggravating.

I would suggest that you try to ignore them rather than doing all sorts of things to get rid of them.

 

[Reef Devils]

I saw the pics you posted of your diatoms. This is very aggravating.

I would suggest that you try to ignore them rather than doing all sorts of things to get rid of them.

Ok I will let the go away on their own.