Need help with Diatoms?

[griss]

I guess I should test the water for silicates?

Not necessarily. Did you make it yourself or buy it?

If you made it with Portland cement and aragonite I (personally) wouldn’t be worried about it. If you bought it somewhere, we need to find out who made it and what materials were used.

That said, if the diatoms are being consuming silicate, you may get a low reading with how much you have.

 

[OldReefGuy]

just a waiting game really.....sooner or later the silicate will get all consumed.

 

[Kozman61]

I did not make it or buy it. My daughter's friend professor who teaches biology in college made it as a class project, the students started a 50 gallon tank for a case study. She is checking how they made it but apparently the professor made the rock scape in the past for other tanks that are up and running for years. As mentioned above, should I still wait it out, it's been 3 months?, should I take it out? . My daughter is trying to find out how they made it, I'll keep you updated. Thanks for the help.

 

[griss]

If they used the structure in a class tank, I would think that structure is the issue. So, like Sean said, silicates are being introduced into the system somewhere.

 

[Kozman61]

Agree the structure is the mystery. Just planning ahead, can I remove that piece and replace with live rock or dry rock/live rock combo. I have corals and don't want to effect them with the change, should I introduce all 35-40 lbs rocks at once or 20 one week 20 the next. I have a feeling it's the "rock" that is causing my issue but probably won't have an answer for maybe a week since the kids are on break . I really appreciate all your help on this. Thx.

 

[griss]

Correct that, it should have read I WOULDN’T think the structure is an issue. Old age and trying to post from a phone sucks

 

[Kozman61]

She did hear back but unfortunately doesn't know what's it made of, I'm thinking some kind of cement, Portland sand combo. It is definitely very dense so maybe the beneficial bacteria has not really settled in and filled into the piece. The diatoms are the bad bacteria and seems to be stronger bacteria at the time, can I add some good bacteria to take over the bad(diatoms)? Any suggestions

 

[kharmaguru]

She did hear back but unfortunately doesn't know what's it made of, I'm thinking some kind of cement, Portland sand combo. It is definitely very dense so maybe the beneficial bacteria has not really settled in and filled into the piece. The diatoms are the bad bacteria and seems to be stronger bacteria at the time, can I add some good bacteria to take over the bad(diatoms)? Any suggestions

BRS promoted the idea that bottled live copepods would wipe out diatom issues. I'm pretty sure this was the video. It couldn't hurt to try it anyway.

 

[Kozman61]

I ordered some Copepods and Amphipods, I will add them this weekend and see what happens, I'll keep you updated..

 

[Kozman61]

Just an update, I added a 32oz bottle of copepods and started to dose Phyto. It's only been a week or so...don't see any improvement so far, hopefully it will clear soon. I'm still baffled how diatoms can last 3 months. I had my water tested the other day and it came perfect , all numbers in line. I still can't figure it out...

 

[Frags2Frogs]

Add a bag of chemipure to your filtration! Should clear that up no problum! I’d just get a smaller sized bag tho not to go over kill in the new system but it will definitely get rid of any extra nutrients causing that stuff to grow

 

[Kozman61]

I tried Chemipure Elite and Blue in the past and still did not clear up. My Zoa's, Duncan and Zenia's corals are growing fine, water parameters are good, do weekly 10-15% water changes.. I'm almost on 4 months of this issue...can diatoms last 4 months?. Latest pic attached.

 

[Frags2Frogs]

Do you have any plastic in your tank? There’s got to be something fueling them :/

 

[Frags2Frogs]

Maybe get a goat fish or some sand sifting cucumbers,snails,or starfish a mix of them should keep the sand rotated enough so it won’t have time to grow. but, seems like you have more of a trial and error situation. If you can find what’s producing excess silicates and eliminate that is the key. the problem is finding what it is. Another thing you can try is adding some sponges to your system as they will compete with the diatoms for silica.

 

[Kozman61]

No plastic in the tank, I have about 10 assorted snails and a sand shifting starfish, I see them come out at night and crawl the sandbed, they been in the tanks for months....the pic looks like diatoms , correct?

 

[Kozman61]

Just an update, I bought a golden head sleeper goby a few days ago to help shift the sand but he makes a mess showering my frags with sand. The sand bed is a little better, but can I help by stirring the sand with a stick/turkey baster to clear things up?

 

[griss]

Just an update, I bought a golden head sleeper goby a few days ago to help shift the sand but he makes a mess showering my frags with sand. The sand bed is a little better, but can I help by stirring the sand with a stick/turkey baster to clear things up?

Depending on how deep the sand bed is, be careful not to disturb too much of the sand at one time. If there's a hydrogen sulfide build up in the sand bed, disturbing too much at once could release a lot of H2S into your system.

 

[Kozman61]

My sand is not deep , maybe inch and a half , two inch max.

 

[Kozman61]

Another week goes by and no improvement, I'm at a loss. I'm doing the ATI ICP test, I'll send it in and see what the results are, i'll keep you all in the loop...

 

[Kozman61]

I received my test results and need help on which path I should take. As mentioned, I've been having an diatoms issue for 4+months(I think it's diatoms) but may be something else. It basically all started when I added a man made rock in November which I think is made from portland cement and crushed stone/coral. The results from the test were Bromine is 88mg/l verses Ideal of 68mg/l and Strontium is 9.84 mg/l verses 8.11 Ideal which were flagged as Attention Increased value. Fluorine - 0.61 mg/l verses Ideal Value 1.32 mg/l and Iodine - 24.35 ug/l verses Ideal Value of 65.92 ug/l were listed as Critical Too Little, Zinc was Critical Too High - 12.60 ug/l verses Ideal Value of 2.03 . The Zinc was high and Iodine and Fluorine were low and the most critical flags of the test. The test for my RODI came up completely clean , no issues. The Base and Major elements were fine, Salt, KH, MG, Calc, PO4, NO3, all in line. So the question is why do I still have Diatoms after 4+ months??, and do any of the elements stand out that would cause my issue - let me know what you think.