Diatom possible causes

[ospouh]

Hello,

I know that the causes of diatoms are silicates and phosphates but i am not sure what are the possible reasons these are being generated, the tank is a 20 Gallon high with 40 lbs of live sand and 23 Lbs of live rock, the load is a yellow belly damsel and a tomato clown, the clean up crew is about 15 assorted snails, 4 blue legged hermits and 2 red legged hermits. i have a califolowre coral, hammer, some yellow polyps and a green start polyp.

I have a HOB refugium AC100 turned in to that full of chaeto and aprotein skimmer that is running 24/7. Lightcycle of chaeto is about 18 hrs aday and for the tank its about 12 hrs a day. Lighting is 96 Watt Odyssea 24".

I use RO water from LFS so i dont know where i can be getting the phosphate and silicates i moved down feeding to about 2 small meals aday. diatom seems to be controlle dnow bu tnto going away. I get tons of flow in the tank and i dont see any dead spots.

So i am not sure what it could be. I ordered a phosban reactor to control it but i would like to know th cause since tank been running for 8 month and this is the first diatom of this scale (basiclaly over everything LOL)

 

[kau_cinta_ku]

how long has the tank been setup?

 

[Avi]

Eight months is a bit long for a diatom issue to go unresolved with all of the other circumstances that you mention. I have to think that the sand being blown about by the substantial flow that you say you have...or...the water source not being so great as the local fish store claims...would be the source. Have you tested it for silicates? I'd test both the tank's water and the RO water you're getting. In any event, the reactor with a good phosphate-removal medium, which will also remove silicates, will most likely help things.

 

[ospouh]

i dont happen to have any test kits for phosphate and silicates. I use to just buy distilled water and use it but someone convinced me to go for RO cause its better somehow. I believe i will be going back to original source of distilled water

 

[ospouh]

well my AC110 says its rated from 186 to 500 gph (put on max flow) i would assume about 350 to be average
and my aquaclear 20 is says to be 126 GPh times 2 so total is about 700 gph which gives 35x turn over. I dont think thats too extreme is it?

 

[Avi]

No, I would agree that it isn't too extreme. In fact, I'd say it was just about right. But, there can be a good deal of silicate in sand and if it's constantly disrupted, I suppose that it would all be released over time instead of trapped in a substrate that isn't being disrupted. Often, if a substrate that is not being blown around is disrupted even after years, it will release silicates and diatoms would suddenly appear. In your case, most likely, it's being released all the time so diatoms appear somewhere on the substrate that isn't so turbulent. I wouldn't worry about it other than it is a little unsightly. I think that the phosphate reactor with some Rowaphos would be a measure that you'd find effective in depleting the silicates before the diatoms can capitalize on them and so your problem would be relieved once and for all. These reactors aren't expensive at all, though the Rowaphos isn't cheap...but it will go a long way in a 20-gallon tank and it would consistently combat phosphates as well.