Diatom Outbreak.. why?
 

Every day (well, within an hour) of cleaning my sand, I get brown/golden diatoms on the sand... it wont go away!!!

I am wondering if this is from my change in lighting (went from 2x65w PC to 150w HQI) .. I never had an outbreak after the switch.. it took weeks after...

is this why I am seeing so much diatoms? Will they go away in time? It's so annoying!!

Scott

They always go away in time. :mrgreen:

heh, so when you say they go away in time... around how long does an outbreak last? I think I am close to two weeks with this now.. and seems to be getting worse, and I have been doing water changes, etc.

It's more of a golden brown film than it is diatoms... but I am sure it's the same?

If anyone has more information that can help me that'd be great. Thanks.

Scott

I have had this problem before, and the only thing i found was increasing flow around that area. I had it bad and then i got a UV sterilizer and increased the flow and havent seen it since.

I really think it is just a waiting game for you though. I always found the more i mess around with the tank the worse things get, so now i let things adjust over time and it seems to work out well.

Steve

I've been waiting since July for mine to disappear :|

it seems they get more and more the more I change water...we'll see what happens when my ro/di unit gets here :D

Thanks Steve. I'll keep my hands out of the tank for a while heh.. I am so bad for that. I will also try to get some more water movement on the sand.

Thanks again.

Scott

Hmm, maybe I'll try to cut down on water changes, or just take out smaller amounts until it starts to go away. Errrr... so annoying!

yup, sure takes away the beauty of a tank

that's for sure... I mean, I am anal so I am constantly blowing it off the sand haha.. I put my skimmer on the wettest setting just to suck out as much junk as possible.. and put a fresh bag of carbon in.

the film comes back within minutes after blowing it off the sand.. patches form, etc...

You changing with Tap water or RO/DI?

Steve

haha... conditioned tap water... ahhhh! I know, I know... heh

the owner of one of the nicest tank i've seen in regina uses tap water. :)

I have had great success so far with tap water... plus , Calgary's tap water isn't that bad at all.

Digging up a thread from the past..

I still have a diatmon problem... is this simply still from using conditioned tap water? I thought it would come and go.. as it did, but it tends to come more than it goes haha. It's just a film of golden brown algae that settles over the sand. I don't feed heavy and I do not feed very often, if I do.. it's a small amount of flakes, and mysis is once a week (and sometimes not even)

Is there any chemical I could use, like chemi-clean or anything that might help ? Or do I just suck it up until I get the cash/time to order an RO/DI unit?

Thanks.

What is your phosphate level at?

I don't have a phosphate test kit unfortunately. But my nitrates come up 0.. or at least extremely close to 0 :neutral: I should invest in one of those bad boys haha..

Yes, you should! :mrgreen:

If you want an ro/di - buy one of the aquasafe units. Very cheap and just eliminates the tap water concern.

PJ's has a Nutrafin one on for 1/2 price was like 7 bux just to find out I'm at zero.
I had real bad case of diatoms I reduced my lights an hour reduced my feedings and added more snails BAM gone in about a week and a half :mrgreen:

People shouldn't use tapwater for this reason especially:

Sometimes water treatment centers will add chemicals to the water to solve certain problems. Which in turn creates problems for yourself. This is one of the reasons that the odd tank crashes with no explanation.

You can buy distilled water from grocery stores while saving up for an RODI as well.

No don't bother it will only test inorganic phosphate which I doubt you have any of. I have one, never use it, always shows 0.