can't figure out what I'm doing wrong!!!

[wattsupdoc]

You need to remove as much of the diatoms as you can instead of just wiping it off. They simply just float off to land somewhere els and grow. So if you can vacuum them away then you will be manually pulling phosphates and silicates out of the column. Otherwise, they just continue to increase. You have to have both phosphates AND silicates for diatoms to grow. Eliminate one or thew other and they cannot exist. They consume phoshpates and build there skeletons with silicates. Try attaching a 1/4 in polytube to a toothbrush. start a syphon on the line and begin brushing all you diatoms, sucking the little buggers away as you go. Do this everytime to go to clean the diatoms. Replace syphoned water with aged RO SW each time you do this. It will take time, but you will get there. Add some hispanic turbo snails also. They will help in the clean up. But realize, even with an animal digesting the diatoms.When they pass the leftovers they will be dumping some phosphate and silicates back into the water. They will take some up, but will still realease some back. Also, if you have anything die in the tank, or molts, you should remove it as soon as possible. Phophates are present in all living things.
It could be the sand contributing to it. And wouldn't hurt to carefully replace the sand with good aragonite sand. You will not still know though if that was the problem. The sand contains a good amount of debris=====phoshphates. So by removing the sand, you will remove a bunch of undetectable phophate sources.

 

[wattsupdoc]

Originally Posted by derekc
tru getting some phosguard and place it in a media bag and place it in ure filter..i did this and my sil/phos are reading 0.2 from 1.0 -3 days ago...thats where my diatoms came from...
Using phosgaurd or rowaphos is a good way to help keep phophates in check. But not were they come from. Not finding the source can be problematic, but finding a recipe that works for you will effect a cure. Temporarilly at least. Actually you could try running seachems phosban, use it AS DIRECTED. Do this twice. Run it for 4 days (i think thats what it states). Then replace it and run it again. After that replace with phosgaurd and run it continuosly. As directed. These are best ran in a phosgaurd reactor. They're cheap and work great.

 

[buckeye88]

Originally Posted by buckster71
What kind of filtration are you using?
Also are you feeding with any liquid prytoplakton food?
Also I am reading about these typse of blooms as I am suffering the same ill effects. The tank is clean until about 1:00 after I turn on the lights.
Microscopic observations of Lugol-preserved samples collected near a subsurface drogue during the spring bloom of 1981 in the central North Sea suggested that the phytoplankton crop consisted mainly of diatoms. However, the relative abundance of alloxanthin among the carotenoids measured by reversed-phase, high-performance liquid chromatography indicated that in most samples Cryptophyceae were at least as abundant. On the basis of a multiple regression analysis of pigment concentrations to obtain pigment ratios, the contribution of Cryptophycean chlorophyll to total chlorophyll was calculated. The Cryptophyceae:diatom ratio appeared to be variable during the period of observations, ranging between 0 at the beginning to 1.0 ten days later. It is recommended that the classical method of counting phytoplankton for crop estimates be supplemented by chemotaxonomical studies with modern quantitative chromatographic methods such as HPLC for the measurement of algal pigments.
Sorry buckster but you totally lost me

. Anyhow I do use phytoplankton to feed my corals. Are you saying that that is a bad idea?
Also, what I have is like dust and not like a mat. I am fairly certain that they are diatoms and not cyana because they are not slimey at all.

 

[perfectdark]

Originally Posted by Buckeye88
Sorry buckster but you totally lost me

. Anyhow I do use phytoplankton to feed my corals. Are you saying that that is a bad idea?
Also, what I have is like dust and not like a mat. I am fairly certain that they are diatoms and not cyana because they are not slimey at all.

No its not a bad idea, but not something to do all the time. And the article posted here is refrencing the way things are from natural coral reefs in the wild. In no way can you replicate the vast amounts of planktonic organisms in our enclosed systems. You can test for phosphates but you cannot test for silicats. And even if you do test for phosphates you may not get the true test results because some forms of phosphates are binding and wont show on tests. Its a good idea to run a phosguard just to use as a precaution but finding the source maybe difficult IMO.

 

[buckeye88]

When I checked the bag of sand at work (same kind that I used for my tank) it didn't say wether or not it contained silica

. I am going to get rid of that dang sand anyhow, I like the look of florida crushed coral better anyhow and I strongly feel that that may be my prob. I will also be using phosguard, doing a partial water change and getting some turbo snails. If that doesn't do it, I don't know what will.

 

[bgrae001]

well it sounds like your on the right track. Keep us updated as to what happens after you make all the changes

 

[buckeye88]

ok, incase anyone's interested in my results or is facing similar problems I thought I would update this older post. Today I did change my sand, theroughly clean my tank, add phosguard, do a approx 30% DI H2O change, and I have turbo snails that should be here early this week from this site along with some other goodies

. It looks great now! the corals look a little stressed because I had to take everything out of my tank and they spent some time in a bucket but they'll probably be fine by tomarrow. Hopefully the diatomes don't come back!! I'll probably post again if anything goes right or wrong.

 

[renogaw]

you put crushed coral in?
or is florida crushed coral just another name for sand?
CC has it's own problems that you're going to face--nitrates, syphoning detritus from it, and snails and some fish will not be able to live in your tank now because it will cut them up.
was it dry or wet? if wet, you may be having a mini cycle causing the stress on the corals.
keep us informed

 

[buckeye88]

Originally Posted by renogaw
you put crushed coral in?
or is florida crushed coral just another name for sand?
CC has it's own problems that you're going to face--nitrates, syphoning detritus from it, and snails and some fish will not be able to live in your tank now because it will cut them up.
was it dry or wet? if wet, you may be having a mini cycle causing the stress on the corals.
keep us informed
It was wet and it was called reef sand. It's almost as grainy as CC but slightly smaller grains. It was very clean looking, I didn't syphon it because it didn't look like it needed to be. The lights have been on since 10:00 this morning and no diatomes!! Usually by this time my tank would look sad. Hopefully it will stay that way

 

[buckeye88]

It's been four days now and my tank still looks just as nice as it did when I cleaned it. The corals looks happier and healthier than I have ever seen them and now I think I finally can buy some new coral and not have to worry about it dying or shrinking. I recieved my package from this site two days ago so those snails have been in there since then along with my new hawaiian strawberry crab which I've been wanting and watching thise site for like a hawk for months to get one

! I also took the phosguard out today so it won't harm my corals. Thanks everyone for the help! This is the nicest I have ever seen my tank! I can't believe it was from using the wrong sand. A mistake I made when I was new came back to haunt me but I learned a lesson from it.

 

[renogaw]

great!
glad you're happy, there's nothing worse than spending the money you have to in this hobby and being unhappy with the end result. glad this worked out!