First diatom bloom

[Jwheld]

Hello. I'm very new to the hobby. I recently (finally after 2 years of gathering equipment) got my 40 gallon tank up and running. It was fully cycled a few weeks ago with minimal diatoms. I have now had a clown pair for a few weeks. I have a pretty basic coralife fluorescent bulb lighting the tank for 8 hours a day. I know a diatom bloom is inevitable for most new tanks and that it feeds on excess silica in the new tank then basically starves when it is depleted. My question is, will the lights help it grow to deplete the silica faster? I have seen people say turn off the lights to help get rid of it quicker. I guess just a different way of thinking about it, so I would like some opinions!! Thanks.

 

[BigEZ77]

Lights will make it worse. I used PhosGuard in a reactor and killed the lights for 3 days...both helped solve the problem.

 

[Gaxmode]

Lights on or off.. It will go away on its own. Just keep up with water changes

 

[Potatohead]

Lights off will make it less "intense" so to speak, but it will last longer. The silica needs to be consumed by them either way.

 

[scooter31707]

diatoms are normal in new tanks. you can leave the lights on and add a small CUC to help with it, but they will eventually go away. Sign of a new tank, that's all. If hair algae start to come, usually that comes from overfeeding or your rock is leaching phosphates into the water.

 

[Jwheld]

Thanks for the input! I cured the rock for a long time and precipitated the phosphate out. Have been testing weekly with no signs of phosphate and doing 20% water changes for the couple weeks.