coraline algea and brown diatoms

[bowhunterj]

I was reading a post on why someone cant grow coralline algae .and most said to keep your parameters in check , well I have a tank up and running only 5 months started June 5th and it already has plenty of coralline on everything almost to the point of out of control. that said I also have brown diatoms on glass and sand .seems like a lighting problem because it is only in high light areas in the shady parts its clean. under rocks ect. my para. are cool so what do you think I should change . I tried cutting back light sch. from 10 hrs of high light back to 8 hrs didn't seem to change much?????

 

[neiltus]

Tank sounds like mine...it's a new tank thing as others will say...

Most recently I had a DI cartridge get to about 15% but was still seeing 0ppm. At about this time the diatoms started coming on. Seems silica starts getting through DI around 60% exhaustion. While I can't definitively put a finger on this being the cause, it's something to consider.

Also would help to know general parameters and depth of sand bed...do you vac the bed?

 

[bowhunterj]

Tank 90 gl. sand bed 1inch fine and 11/2 inch coarse . no I don't touch the sand maybe I should?
salinity 1.023
PH. 8.2
Ammonia 0 ppm.
nitrate 10. ppm
nitrite 0 ppm.
cal. 380
alk. 14.o
Mag. 1350
Phos. 0.25

the Alk. is high I noticed , what is a good way to lower ? I use Fusion two part sys. ? Good or Bad?? seems like it isn't keeping cal. up either .I keep the glass clean but try not to mess with sand.

 

[neiltus]

My po4 actually got up to 1ppm with die off, through water changes and gfo it tested at .09 this morning.

See if you can run some GFO, that will also help silicate levels. Cleaning a portion of the bed is up to you. Also might want to look at adding another DI after your existing DI, or at a minimum replacing that DI when it gets to 50%. Don't know if the DI change will help but it will not hurt.

Also, look at the salt threads/tests in the chem forum, some salts are higher in silicates.

 

[bowhunterj]

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Grimreaperz]

Yeah this is typical in a new tank...silicate reside in your new live sand. And sometimes rock. Also in your glass. If you started with dry rock/sand even more so. Diatoms live on silicate. I often will stir my sand bed to help them use it up faster. But yeah if there are silicate in your system you can almost guarantee you will see Diatoms...Trochus Snails will manage it quite well. I have 7 + 10 babies as they have bred.
Those 7 trochus Snails demolished my Diatoms in a week and I rarely see any now. They keep it in check. They are also can right themselves when they get tipped.

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

 

[MiataRacer]

I ended up with diatoms not long after starting my tank too. They were on the top of one of my rocks. I bought a dozen left-handed zebra hermits to take care of it. I went to bed, and when the lights in the tank came on the next day, all the diatom algae was gone.

 

[bowhunterj]

any suggestions on getting the silicates depleted other than stirring sand?

 

[neiltus]

any suggestions on getting the silicates depleted other than stirring sand?

I gave two that might help reduce above. YMMV.

1) Check your DI maybe add another. If your buying RO, maybe consider buying an RO unit.
2) GFO