Diatom explosion!

[A.VOID]

So I've always had some diatom on the substrate issue, but nothing too out of control ...

So here's what went down >>>

- About a month ago I switched from store bought RO to my own RO/DI. Big improvement in my water quality, and I'm basically hitting all water parameters across the board ... Finally!
- I had some diatom build up on the back glass that I cleaned off with a sponge last week.
- Upgraded my lighting to T-5 Tek about 2 weeks ago
- Left for vacation over the week-end with my son in charge of watching the tank
>
>
>

I come home to a huge Diatom explosion all over the tank. Front glass, rocks, substrate. I clean it up as well as I can, but what the heck happened? I check the water parameters (thinking my son overfed or something) and they are better than when I left. Nitrates basically nil or < 5 ppm. Everything else perfect.

Any help/ thoughts, etc?

 

[fatdaddy]

I'd cut back on your lighting cycle and nutrients (food) until it dies down.

Have you tested for silica? I thought I had silica issues, but I turned out to have undetectable amounts. It turned out to just be too much nutrients which slowly dissipated as I learned to control my feedings and the tank aged.

And, do you have a good skimmer and water flow? When you clean the glass, the debris goes into the water column. Your skimmer should pull this out before it settles.

 

[A.VOID]

I need to check for Silica

Lighting is around 9 1/2 (half light) and 8 for full light.

Skimmer is a Euroreef CS-80 (or something, but I have that covered).

I forgot to mention that I removed the direction nozzles on the Koralia 3's before I left. Blew around sand, I had to put those back on ... too much. I imagine that's some of the issue, but these Diatoms got to go. I hate that crap!

 

[Dave413]

Did he top off evap with tap water?

 

[mluz]

My thoughts are the koralias blew sand around and that raised the nutrient level in those two weeks, i believe you are not getting a reading with your test kit may be because the diatoms have absorbed the excess nutrients.

I would suggest doing weekly water changes of 10%, give it some time and it will go away on its own.

 

[Sk8r]

Water changes. Cerith snails actually eat the stuff.

 

[sdietz2469]

yeah, i would do waterchanges more often and feed less... like was said before alot of times the algaes in the tank can use up the nutrients before it is tested.... good luck
shane

 

[fatdaddy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13244519#post13244519 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by A.VOID
I need to check for Silica

I bought a test kit, but IMHO, I wouldn't bother. If you're using good DI resin and TDS is zero, then you are likely not having a silica problem. Even if you did, water changes will bring it under control.