Can't Shake This Diatom Bloom

BigEZ77

BigEZ77

Member
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,
 
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Are you using any type of mechanical filter, such as filter floss? I had a very established reef tank that had a brown dusting on this and every day when I got home. At the time I was using "quilt batting" as a means of mechanical filtration. I removed the quilt batting and the brown dusting almost instantly disappeared.
 
same thing in my tank too man which kind of leads me to believe it's due to the youth of the system. i added 15 more snails today to help with the war.
 
heathlindner25 said:
Are you using any type of mechanical filter, such as filter floss? I had a very established reef tank that had a brown dusting on this and every day when I got home. At the time I was using "quilt batting" as a means of mechanical filtration. I removed the quilt batting and the brown dusting almost instantly disappeared.
Click to expand...

None at all.
 
JohnnyHildo said:
same thing in my tank too man which kind of leads me to believe it's due to the youth of the system. i added 15 more snails today to help with the war.
Click to expand...

I don't think any snails eat diatoms or even a fighting conch, which I now have. Might try a cucumber, I heard they will eat diatoms.
 
BigEZ77 said:
I don't think any snails eat diatoms or even a fighting conch, which I now have. Might try a cucumber, I heard they will eat diatoms.
Click to expand...
mine started off as diatoms but is basically a brownish green hair algae on about 20% of my pukani. i DO use filter floss which i rotate every day and replace every second day.
i suspect my issues are also related to phosphates leaching from my rock.
 
It's part of the game, diatoms can hang out for months. I bought a ton of dwarf cerith snails and they busted it out in 2 weeks, so I'd try that, they are my best performing snail for clean up.
 
BigEZ77 said:
How many is a ton and was that in your 25G?
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Yes it is in my 25g, man I must have at least 30-40 in there. They are still in there too, for the most part, blue leg went gangster on some of my CUC. They are tiny but are work horses.
 
I have some but nowhere near that many. I have about 30 snails in total of just about every different type. I also have a fighting conch and am looking at picking up a small tigertail cuke...might look at getting more ceriths.
 
"Weeks" isn't unusual for a diatom bloom in a new tank. Unlike algae and other pests we deal with, diatoms require silica to grow. It can take a month or two for all of the excess silica to leach out of new sand and rocks, once it's exhausted they will be too. While they do need nitrogen and phosphate like everything that is alive, that's not usually what wears them out. Your rowa phos is absorbing some silicate, and removing the diatoms you have by blowing off the rocks with a filter sock running will get the silica out of your system (like how removing algae removes its nutrients so they can't fertilize the next batch when it dies). That can help, but patience is the real key.

What you don't want to do is freak out and do a bunch of drastic stuff like buying a massive CUC or doing ridic water changes. Big changes stress your system in ways that can accumulate: a big water change + scrubbing the rocks + messing around with the lights can all add up to quite a disruption. It's more about letting the tank settle in. After the diatoms you'll probs see some fierce algae too. But that will pass as well.

Its tempting to buy lots of snails, but it's sad to watch them starve later. I like a snail for every 2 gallons of water max. If you need more than that long term there's an issue with nutrient export that you don't want to just slap a Bandaid on. I'd think twice about adding a cuke to a 45 for the same reason, especially when there's already a conch in there competing for food.

Im assuming that your rodi is testing zero for tds. That's v important for diatoms as silica can be one of the first things through when the di is used up.
 
Thanks for the very informative explanation CS. So I'm good to go back to one 10% water change, blow off rocks with baster and scrape down glass, all once a week? In respect to lighting, I've noticed it only forms in the open areas where the light is hitting, but not in the areas where it isn't (i.e. behind rocks). Is the light making it worse? I've seen a lot of people on here saying to kill the lights for 3 days.

I will not get the cuke based on your information. We are going on 5 weeks here so it seems longer than most I've heard about. Yes, my TDS meter reads zero.

Thanks,
 
weekly 10% with blowing worked for me. I also like to vacuum my sand with a gravel vac, but you can't if it's more than 3"

They do like light. So it kinda depends how you define "worse." If you want less diatoms right now, less light is better, if you want to get it over with - more. That's the diff from something like, say, cyano, where you may always have what it needs in your tank. Then, 3 day blackout can help get the population diminished to where something that is competing for nutrients gets a foothold. But since diatoms are going to run their course when they use up all the silica, theres less reason to drag it out and possibly upset your coral. IMO.

same with stirring the sand. Like, if you dont then maybe you have a silica bomb lurking under there and one day a digging critter stirs it up and your back in a brown nightmare

here's a cute vid about diatoms, it made the wait a little easier for me :)
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/90160649?color=ffffff&portrait=0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
CStrickland said:
same with stirring the sand. Like, if you dont then maybe you have a silica bomb lurking under there and one day a digging critter stirs it up and your back in a brown nightmare
Click to expand...

I take this that I should stir my sand? Is that correct? Thanks for the vid.
 
I've had some algae blooms in my tank and I've beat them back every time by doing 15-20% changes every other day for a week. Then putting in fresh GFO in my reactor. Also cut back feeding a bit. If you have LEDs, a huge factor for algae is the UV light, if it's too high your fueling algae
 
Luke Schnabel said:
I've had some algae blooms in my tank and I've beat them back every time by doing 15-20% changes every other day for a week. Then putting in fresh GFO in my reactor. Also cut back feeding a bit. If you have LEDs, a huge factor for algae is the UV light, if it's too high your fueling algae
Click to expand...

Does the UV light come more with the actinic or the 10K?
 
I wouldn't know, my LEDs have a designated channel for the UV. But I ran mine high and turned it way down and havnt had any problems since.
 
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