Diatom Bloom

[duncantse]

During my cycle, I never had a diatom bloom but then 2 months later (last week) I started getting diatoms.

Is it normal for diatoms to come in a 2 month old tank?

I heard you can turn on the lights for longer periods of time to kill diatoms or was it shorter amount of time? Thanks.

 

[jimmy frag]

algea

algea

bummer. on a couple of installs we have we just went through this. alot of phosphate being releast from rock and graval. get some phos ban going, turbo snails work well. and a tang, foxface

 

[cherubfish pair]

siphon the crud out of your gravel/sand

 

[Trademark]

How much are you feeding?

 

[duncantse]

Strange, I'm not getting diatoms on my sandbed. Just on the rocks. I'm feeding 2 pinches of pellets food everyday. They get eaten up before they even touch the rocks/sand.

 

[duncantse]

bump

 

[SushiGirl]

Add any new plastics to the tank? Diatoms feed on silicates, so anything new added that has silicates will cause a new bloom for a bit. As usual, they'll just burn themselves out after consuming the silicates.

 

[duncantse]

Well, at the beginning of my tank, an intake tube was connected to a powerhead for my power filter. I took the intake tube (made out of plastic) out and stored it in a cabinet. Last week, I added my intake tube back to the power filter. Can this cause a diatom bloom? Also, when I saw the diatoms, I bought myself a protein skimmer. Maybe this made it even worse?

 

[SushiGirl]

I guess it would depend on how long the tube was in there in the first place. If it wasn't long, that it could still be leaching silicates.

 

[duncantse]

The tube is about 10 inches long.

 

[duncantse]

The tube is about 10 inches long.

 

[SushiGirl]

I meant if the tube wasn't in there very long in the beginning, it might still have silicates in it.

 

[duncantse]

Right when I put the tube in, the diatoms started happening. It's been 2 weeks now. I think it is starting to get better. the dark brown spots are turning more like green. Is this a sign that it is getting better?

 

[duncantse]

bump

 

[pakarinen]

bump!

My BC14 is not done cycling - ammonia is about 4.0 with my API kit - and I am having a diatom bloom on my DR and aragonite sand. I thought the diatoms came at the end of a cycle (?)

 

[KEITHHAYS_2000]

bump!

My BC14 is not done cycling - ammonia is about 4.0 with my API kit - and I am having a diatom bloom on my DR and aragonite sand. I thought the diatoms came at the end of a cycle (?)

There really is no end to the cycle. Generally, the diatoms showing up means that you now have life in your aquarium. The cycle is continuous and, you hope, never interrupted. Diatoms only need light and water to grow, though they do like salt. They produce about 35% of the oxygen on the planet; so they are everywhere. What eventually happens in the aquarium is a balance and hopefully lower nutrients. While their outer shell is silicate (glass), the most likely cause is an excess of nutrients in the water. Looks for phosphate or nitrate.

 

[duncantse]

LOL! My old thread came back to life. Well, it's been 2 months after this thread and all my diatoms are gone. Just a cycle that I went through.

 

[Angel*Fish]

You're always going to have silicic acid in your aquarium-- enough to feed a few diatoms. When you have a big bloom it temporarily exhausts the silicates. But if not used or exported they can build up again and if other nutrients get high, diatoms will then bloom again.

It's not a matter of removing them from your system in terms of it all leaching from your original rocks or sand and then you never have to worry about it again.