Diatoms on everything!

[jonthefb]

diatoms are a natural progression after a tank has been cycled...typicall you go through an algae cycle as well, beginning with diatoms, moving then to red slime algae (cyanobacteria, and finally the hair algaes...you could just be going through this natural progression.... as for fightign it, how old is your tank, how long has it been set up, has it been cycled, and do you have a clean up crew in there yet? if you dont i would strongly reccommend gettig a florida fighting conch and a queen conch for your 75 as these guys typically attack diatoms before eating other types of algae....vary your cleanup crew and you will be able to combat the differnt algaes on all fronts. it is also safe to siphon the diatoms off of the rock and sand and out of the tank, just be sure that you dont pick up too much sand in the process...if you do happen to get a lot of sand, let it dry out later, and you cna place it back into the tank...
as for the rowa-phos...i personally have never heard of or used this product, but a defintae source of the phosphates could be yor tap water...i would strongly reccommend using either the ro water form your lfs, or many times grocery stores sell it by the gallon as well...check around, and if it gets to expensive you might look at investing in an ro/DI filter for your home...these guys usually dont have to be hard plumbed into anythign, they usually come with a saddle valve that clamps onto a copper pipe, adn then you screw a terminal into the pipe which peirces the wall and then allows the water to flow into your ro unit, so its not too much work!
anyhow, sorry for rambling on and on, but good luck
jon

 

[timsedwards]

Hi Jon thanks for your help,
The tank is 10 months old but it cycled about 6 weeks ago now very quickly as it spiked when changing the substrate. Rowa-Phos just removes phosphates apparently.
Is it safe to put a Fighting conch or whatever in with my conditions? (see sig.) My clean up crew at the moment is 4 red legs and 12 super turbs.
Yes I am looking at buying a RO unit sometime, if not buying it from my LFS.
Any thoughts?
Tim.

 

[dsp]

Some times it is best to leave things alone and let nature take it's course in your tank. If you add nothing to your tank that may raise phospate, silicate, nitrate,etc. and leave your tank alone then consumers of these things will use them up and bring them down to levels so low that they cannot survive and they simply vanish or cycle. Algea cycles can occur again and again if we continue to upset the natural balance in our closed systems.

 

[dsp]

Another thought on leaving your tank alone;
A few years ago I had a small reef tank that I had been keeping nearly ten years. It always had small managable amounts of algae that I would have to clean off the glass as well as some other problems, and I was always trying different things to fix the problems. One summer in a heat wave the tank water was in the 90's for days and most of my coarals and fish died. All of the death in the tank caused huge blooms of algae that covered every inch of the of the tank... you could not see in it. I was very upset and stopped taking care of the tank altogether... No food, no water changes, nothing. The return pump and skimmer pump had also burned up and stoped working so I used no fitration either. After about a month, to my surprise, it began to clear up and I was left with a crystal clear tank with one damsel and a few polyps still living. The Corals began growing back and all I was doing was letting the light timer come on and off each day and dumping fresh water in every now and again. The tank began to look healthier than it had in all of the ten years I had been keeping it. Iv'e learned now not to work so hard on changing things in may tanks and just let things balance on their own. I also bought myself a real nice chiller!
I am not suggesting that you neglect your tank, only that you resist the temptation to tinker in attempts to fix things when they get out of balance. An ecosystem like a reef tank is very delicately balanced and there are so many variables involved. Light quaility and duration, bacteria, zooplankton, phytoplankton, micro-organisms, fish, invers, trace elements, salinity, alk, etc, etc, etc. Any minor changes you make will change this balance and you may see a growth of unwanted algea. For instance, you may deside that you want to feed your fish more often and this of cource will cause an algea bloom, however, if you stick to your new feeding routine other things such as bacteria and more desirable algeas will compete for the increase in nutrients and eventually the algea bloom starves and goes away.
I guess what I'm saying is be consitant and be patient.
good luck

 

[timsedwards]

Hi!
Thanks for your thoughts!
The diatoms seem to be slowly breaking up now, im hopefuly anyway!
Barracuda - When is a good time to add a conch to eat some yummy diatoms?!?!
Also I think for now I am going to buy RO water until early summer when I can afford to buy a RO unit or so!
Tim.

 

[barracuda]

If your water parameters (ammonia/nitrite) are stable, you can add counch. Get the fighting counch. Best sand cleaner IMO.
Cheers

 

[timsedwards]

Hey Barracuda!
Good News! : Diatoms are dying and tank looking cleaner
Bad News!: Tank is cloud with dead diatoms!
WIll they just get filtered out? I found that turning the lights off really helped. Im going to test my water again today so will post results on here.
You know the natures ocean live sand? How long does it stay 'live' in that bag? Just I was thinking of buying it now whilst I have the money and keeping it until diatom bloom is over?
Also I will buy RO water from LFS from now on. When do you think I should do a water change?
Thanks!
Tim.

 

[barracuda]

Hey Tim,
i'm happy to hear about your progress with diatoms.
Will that stuff be filtered out? Some of it probably will, but water change with RO water will make a real difference. I would wait another couple of days and then "strike" with water change. Keep monitoring phosphates. As phosphates will go down the same stuff sould start absorbing silicates (another "food" source). I'm just not sure about Rowa-Phos, but it should be written in the package.
Bio active aragonite shelf life is about 9 months (if i remember well). Anyway, each package has it's expiration date on it, so to be sure just find that print.
Good luck!

 

[timsedwards]

Thanks buddy!
I need to get a better test kit as the hagen one is useless.
I will look into fighting conchs soon, and yes the algae should get filtered through my fluval. BTW as requested my new readings are in my sig, nitrates are slightly down from last time, although ammonia is up (due to overfeed -still use to feeding 3 fish!).
OK so i will go ahead and buy the live sand with a view to seeding it as soon as diatoms go down!
Cheers for the help!
Tim.

 

[barracuda]

Tim, check if you can buy Salifert or Tropic Marin brand test kits or maybe Seachem's. Leave Hagen's or Red Sea's test kits for your enemies.

 

[timsedwards]

LOL yeh Hagen suck...
I normally use Salifert or another one (who's name escapes me) but the LFS didnt have the PO4 one in. I will look again
I will have to ask you about seeding Live Sand soon ! (but not yet, one battle at a time!)
Oh one more thing, how long can I keep my Rowa-Phos in the fluval for?
Cheers,
Tim.

 

[barracuda]

how long can I keep my Rowa-Phos in the fluval for
Tim, i'm not sure about Rowa stuff as i never used it before. Check the directions, it should be written there.
DvSKiN,
i personally don't like both Hagen and Red Sea. Had a bad experience with them. I still use some of red sea, because i have a stock of it. After buying Tropic Marin, i don't wanna see anything else. Well maybe Salifert, as i heard a lot, good things only, about it. As for Hagen, i wouldn't even trust NO3, as nitrates are kind of difficult to measure precisely. Maybe PH, NO2 or NH3/NH4.....Anyway this is my personal experience with hagen.

 

[timsedwards]

I just didnt think Hagen was accurate enough and the colours are not very good.