How long before diatoms go away and when to add corals?

[cbleehk]

Hi all,

This is my first saltwater tank. Its a month old and It's a nano tank at about 20 gallons. I tested the water and everything is either zero or close to zero including phosphates and nitrates. Everything else including salinity and KH are at recommended levels.

My live rocks and sand are getting covered by diatoms. They started about a week ago and it's spreading slowly around the sand bed. A couple days ago I've added some phosphate remover, I also added some new bacteria. I dose pinch of sugar every day (as carbon dosing to remove nitrates) and nitrates and phosphates have dropped from about 5ppm and 1ppm to about 0.2 ppm and 0 ppm over the past three days.

I'm wondering how much longer do I have to wait before the diatoms go away? I'm also wondering when would be a good time to add Corals. Should I wait till all the diatoms go away before I start adding corals?

By the way I also added four blue damsels yesterday. The water test results was taken today so I don't think the nitrates are going up because of the fish. I'll be testing the water every other day to see if it stays this way.

Also I have a side question regarding tapwater. I have a filter on my tapwater and it's supposed to remove heavy metals, dissolved metals, etc but it's not RO. I tested the water and it has zero phosphate and about 2.5 ppm of nitrates. What else should I test to see whether the tapwater is good enough for refills as well as water changes? I Will be using distilled water but I really want to see if I can use this filter tapwater in the future? I do use Seachem stability on my tapwater when I do water changes on my freshwater tanks.

Thanks and appreciate any help!


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[Rkmoen99]

So the diatoms should go away pretty soon probably less than a week from now. I'd give the tank a few months to make sure that everything is fully stabilized and to let the rocks become fully seeded before adding any corals.

Are you planning to do sps, lps, softies, or a mix? I recommend softies. They are the easiest to keep fish with IMO they are also cheaper and hardier for you first ever corals.

The filtered tap water with 2.5ppm nitrate will not work long term. That makes it so that once you put water into the tank you are trying to make it cleaner. Buy a decent RO (or even better RO DI) unit to make sure you start with the best possible water.

Also make sure you have adequate lighting for any corals you plan to keep. I recommend the 165w led from eBay (I just bought one for $58).


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[Sk8r]

What about levels of arsenic, iron, selenium, boron, and such? As a home chemist, you just can't have a test for everything, and evaporation and resupply of water will pile up various elements in your tank and give you ghosty problems.

WElcome in! You can fix the problems, but you
should return the damsels asap---they're not suited for a 20 gallon: more like a 100, 120 gallon. They won't survive.

This isn't freshwater: the chemistry is more complex, and you can't rush things. Get tests for alkalinity: Salifert is a good quick test; set it at 8.3 and keep it there. And confine yourself to invertebrates for a while, snails and micro-hermits.

The top of this forum has some essential reading in the stickies...go there, and read about cycling and setup, lighting and chemistry. We all start there.

 

[neiltus]

If your using tap, the diatoms might or might not go away. Brown stuff can be diatoms, or a few other things as well.

Too early to carbon dose, especially with a pinch of sugar.

4 damsels-I would not have done that, but it was popular to cycle a tank with them some 20-30years ago.

As Sk8r said, read the stickies and their links.

 

[anthonys51]

If your using tap, the diatoms might or might not go away. Brown stuff can be diatoms, or a few other things as well.

Too early to carbon dose, especially with a pinch of sugar.

4 damsels-I would not have done that, but it was popular to cycle a tank with them some 20-30years ago.

As Sk8r said, read the stickies and their links.

yes 4 damsels in a 20 gallon tank wont work long term. if your lfs told you it will be ok, i would either stop going there or if it was just a worker i would ask the owner why would his worker advise such a purchase