Brown Diatom....what will eat it??

[whyamisofl]

I have had my tank setup for about 2 months now and have been battling this for about 3 weeks.....
I have a GSM clown, pulsing xenia, CC star, 12 cerith snails, 12 nassarius snails, 6 asteris snails, 3 turbo's, 4 emerald crabs, and 12-15 blue legged crabs.....
The top of the sand is getting a little better, but still not nearly as good as it was when I had the tank initially set up.
I have a 150 gallon with 525 watt MH lights, 2 maxi jet 1200 powerheads, 1600 gph overflow/return. I have a GSM-1x protein skimmer and 10 watt UV steralizer in my sump.
PH - 8.3
Temp - 80
Ammonia - 0
Nitrate - 5 - 10
Nitrite - 0
10 gallon water change weekly.
Can anyone recommend anything for cleaning this up?? I am getting irritated with it!!

Thanks :notsure:

 

[alvin]

I had this problem, and I got a Diamond Goby, it cleaned up the sand quite well, however it rearranged it a tad. I'm still battling the diatoms/brown stuff on my glass though. the snails are slow haha

 

[whyamisofl]

btw, I have been using only ro/di from the start
I read that I can put plants in the sump to clean this up......what plants can I put in the sump that will clean this up?

 

[alyssia]

I haven't heard that plants will clear it up. My snails did it for me. It will go away on it's own in time.

 

[sea slug]

If yoy really want to get rid of the brown alge fast get a lawn-mower blenny
I had that same problem and the blenny cleared it up in about 3 days

 

[sea slug]

if you really want to get rid of the brown alge get a lawn mower blenny
I had the same problem and the blenny cleared it up in about 3 days

 

[rustyj]

Originally Posted by whyamisofl
btw, I have been using only ro/di from the start
I read that I can put plants in the sump to clean this up......what plants can I put in the sump that will clean this up?

Firstly your clean up crew is really small. I have a 55 gal and first purchased 50 snails, hermi's ect to clean up algae. There are no longer that many left but I now have macro algae in the tank and the snails and hermi's are all but straving. I havent had to clean the glass once in two months and the sand is cleaned by the hermis all day and night along with one sandsifting starfish. The macro algae doesnt ' clean it' it just uses up the excess nutrients in the water that would feed a micro algae bloom like what you are going through. You need alot for a 150 gal tank but it feeds my fish that eat it and the creatures that grow in it as well as keeping the micro algae in check. That is also why you want to promote the coraline algae growth so it also takes up the nutrients in the water. Good luck.

 

[zanoshanox]

Get a bigger snail and soem micro algea. Like caliprua does a grwat job and absorbing the nutrients.

 

[whyamisofl]

what snails are best for cleaning the brown diatom algae