Why diatoms?

[Psychonaut]

hey so I’m a nerd and became curious about something and I can’t really find an answer here. This is the largest collection of reefers I know (many of whom have a real scientific education) and I was hoping someone could settle my curiosity

Why is a diatom “bloom” not sure that’s the correct terminology almost certain in any new tank? And why is it always first, and then seems to go away?

What I could gather online was that it was a single cellesd algae. So my assumption would be because it’s so much less complex than say green hair algae it has the first chance to suck out all the nitrates and phosphates common to a freshly cycled tank.

Anyway thanks for anyone with an answer to me, just curious

 

[JasonK84]

Diatoms are a result of silicates. Once the silicates are consumed the diatoms die off unless you keep introducing them by not using RO/DI for top off and changes.

I don’t have a scientific background, just something learned along the way. HTH

 

[brandon429]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445

Not rinsing the sand before use/setup is the number one cause of diatoms, and pre rinsing the sand prevents it always for twenty pages. We think it's silicates associated with the high fraction silt component of unrinsed sand. We demo how to have no cyano no diatoms and no dinos, there.

 

[Psychonaut]

Thanks !