HELP!!! Algae and Diatom issues never had issues before!! Im pulling my hair out!!!

lil.guppy

Active Member
I have had my tank and running as a coral tank for years but decided to tear it down and sun dry the rock due to an evil lobo algae.
The sand and a few rocks were kept "alive" in a tubaware container and the remaining rock was sun bleached and left for a month.
I started the tank back up as a fish only with a couple small fish using the live rock and sand and the dead.
I have been battling dusty diatom, green hair, brown hair and bacteria type algaes and blooms GALORE for 5 months now! I even cut my lighting back a few hours and feed pellets every other day.
Im doing everything the same as last time and I had NO issues for 5 years!!! WHAT THE HE CK IS GOIN ON PLEASE HELP MY TANK LOOKS HIDEOUS!!!!!!
 

bang guy

Moderator
When you kill the life in a high quality live rock all of the animal's remains stay in the rock unless you use acid, bleach, or lye to remove the remains. What you have is rock that is loaded with nutrients and the algae are taking advantage of that. If you can deal with it for another 6 months or so the nutrients in the rock will eventually fully dissolve.
 
G

Gloria Fox

Guest
Often, diatoms appear in fresh aquariums with an unstable nitrogen cycle, but the reason can be something else, how it is in your case.
If you want to get rid of them one of the most effective ways to get rid of diatoms is to enhance lighting. Diatoms do not like bright light, so adding additional lamps can effectively deal with them. The aquarium light should be 1.1-1.85 W/gal, but as with reasons here are different ways. You can easily find them on the net. For example, this resource shows some other ways how to get rid of them.
 
L

lilithereefer

Guest
same any new tank seems to go through the process of having a diatom explosion and then cools down though. your tank might not have been fully cycled yet, once the levels stabalize it will die off because there is no more food source for them
 
Top