Removing Diatoms and PH ???

[djtonton]

What is the best way to remove diatoms from your reef tank. They are starting to stick on some of my acroporas and i can see signs of decay :-(

And for some other crazy reason MY ph stays around 8.1-8.2 I try to raise it with kalk or bionics and it jsut drops back down to the 8.1 - 8.2 area?? and ideas.

I am running a phospate reactor on a 90 gal with t5s with a euro reef protien skimmer.

 

[laskopyre]

You may have a high silicate level in your water. This will cause diatoms to grow rapidly. You might want to test for Silicate. Both Seachem and Sailfert make tests for it. Recommended safe levels are below 0.5 ppm. Depending on what phosphate remover you are using in your reactor, you might need to change it. PhosBan does help lower silicate.

 

[Cove Beach]

One question i have is do you run any kind of mech. filtration(socks,foam)? If you do how are you cleaning them? If you are using the washing machine or soaking in tap water, that may be your source of fuel for them. That's what i found in my system early on. Started cleaning socks in RODI and bleach and the problem went away. After the bleach i also rinse in RODI. Just a thought.