Can't Shake This Diatom Bloom

[dbigfoot111]

i cant contribute much but i do hope you can beat this soon

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I made a previous thread about this but I'm still having issues. Its been weeks now that I've had this diatom bloom. Here's the whole breakdown and then questions afterward...


-Nitrates and phosphates are reading virtually zero, but I understand that the diatoms are likely giving me false readings. Cal, mag, alk and pH are all a little high and have been since I started the tank. I believe alot of this may be attributed to using Realreef rock. Also have a Seachem Ammonia Alert badge and it never increases to anything more than the base (safe) reading.

-Never had a cycle because the rock was already cured. Tried over many weeks to force a spike with a cube of frozen food.

-Tried 10% water changes three days in a row for two weekends (Fri-Sun)...nothing.

-I've added two more fish and many frags throughout. Made a large online purchase of frags just before the bloom started. They all seem to be doing well.

-Reduced feedings from twice per day to once per day. Reduced coral feedings from twice a week to once a week. Fish receive mysis one day and brine the other, both soaked in Garlic Guard and Selcon. Corals receive Reefroids.

-I'm running carbon and rowaphos in different reactors.

-I stir the sand a bit every morning to get rid of the diatoms on the surface (don't scrape the ones at the base of the glass more than once a week) and they're back again by the time I get home.

-I've been messing with my light settings and I notice the more I crank up the whites, the worse the bloom gets throughout the day.

-Using RO Buddy.


I know people say wait it out, but waiting is doing nothing for over a month. So, here's some questions...


-Is my only option to kill the lights? If so, for how long and should I run them at all throughout the day?

-I'm worried about my frags. They made a dent in the pocketbook so don't want to lose them. Zoa's, paly, mushrooms (hairy, ricordea and striped), frogspawn, chalice, open brain, plates, duncan, cyphastrea, blasto, trumpet, kenya, and tyree toadstool. How badly will killing the lights affect them?

-Does the minimum blue lights also feed the diatoms? I run 3 hours in the evening at minimum lighting just so I can view the tank but would think of this as moonlights.

-Is it bad to add more corals at this point? Found a killer hammer and a couple torch's online that I'd love to add. All small (1-2").


All help is always appreciated.

Thanks,

Stop stirring your sand bed everyday, this is why you can't get rid of them. Just leave them alone and yes they will go away on their own.

 

[BigEZ77]

Stop stirring your sand bed everyday, this is why you can't get rid of them. Just leave them alone and yes they will go away on their own.

Thanks I'll try that.

Does anyone know if there's more UV at 10K or 20K? EDIT - Cancel that question, I did some online searching and found that the UV is steady across the spectrum with my light, and unfortunately higher UV than other comparable lights.

 

[Sully72]

Young tank = Diatoms

 

[undbulsu]

What salt are you using? I don't want to get into the great salt debate, but I started my tank with Red Sea Coral Pro and battled diatoms for over 6 months. I think it is a great salt and will probably go back to it as the tank matures, but it contains a lot of nutrients that completely synthetic salts don't contain. It is made from evaporated sea water.

I switched to a completely synthetic blend and boom, the diatoms were gone. Possible coincidence? I don't know, but I'm glad they are gone.

 

[BigEZ77]

I'm using Reef Crystals. I did switch to the Instant Ocean for a bit because I didn't have enough corals to absorb the extra nutrients of Reef Crystals properly, but the diatom bloom was already in progress at that point. Now that I have many more LPS, I switched back to Reef Crystals and my params are great now.