Endless diatoms?

BryanCaruso

New member
I have been researching continuous diatoms. So I am good on flow as I have a mp40 pretty cranked up and a 1500gph korallia. I am good on water changes about 22 gallons every 2 weeks never miss a day. I have plenty of nassarious and a conch( he works hard but can't keep up with it. So that tells me lights are too long which maybe possible as it is 12 hours but I really brought down the intensity a couple weeks ago and the glass isn't needing to be cleaned every 12 hours this diatom is only on the sand. I do siphon the sand the last few water changes and doesn't seem to help. The brown is no where else but the sand bed. So where do we go from here less photo period? Or a change in the water change schedule or go a chemical route and why is it only on the sand bed not on lock line power heads live rocks upon research it can only be silicates or nitrate. The nitrates are so low barely registers . There is no other unsightly algea anywhere. As far as food goes I feed a 1/3 of a cube of frozen to 5 fish and target feed to acans and Duncan. And then I alternate doc super eggs. If it is the photoperiod then I can cut it down but doesn't seem like a couple hours will make a difference any suggestions?
 
New tank cycles last a year or so, just let it ride like we've been telling you since February;)
 
My older tank is on the bottom side of this now. I cut the lights way back and now using a reactor with GFO. PO4 was always showing 0 and it was from it being bound in the algae. I just tested last night and finally at 0.04 so getting close to my 0.03 target. I will be doing another water change today and trying to remove as much of the die off as I can. I look at other peoples tanks and am amazed at how nice then are and hoping mine can get to that level. Good luck to you.
 
I'm pretty sure Diatoms feed off of silicates. Once they are all used up they'll go away.
 
So in the reef chemistry forum someone posted something about orange sand so I posted the same pic as above someone said that it is cyano. I have had red slime before. This is how it looks every morning. I am pretty sure If it was cyano it wouldn't just clear up over night.
 
Back
Top