I cant stop brown diatoms from forming.. why?
 

My nitrates are near zero, all evap water and water changes are RO/DI with Hi-S. And I am always getting a lot of brown diatoms covering ONLY the sand. There is absolutly no algae eccept for coraline growing on rocks havent had any grow for the last 4 months. Every 3-4 days I get a light dusting of green on glass, bu thats it. Why is my sand a huge magnet for this gold/brown diatom. Its hard to see in the photo as the light is reflecting back, but the diatom is pretty dark.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...f_IMGP0988.JPG

Brown sand
 

Howdy,

How is the flow of water over your sand bed? I think by getting alittle more even flow over your sand bed will help out. Do you notice any particular areas that get covered more? could be a dead zone, very little current.
just a thought.

HTH,

Sammy

maybe that's where your nutrients are piling? if it won't harm a DSB, maybe give it a little vacuum?

There is flow in those areas, but not as much as the rest. I am running 2 Stream 6100's giving me over 6000 GPH of flow. But it does make sense that there may be a build up of nutrients. I will have to try putting pumps in a different location.

If your tank is less than a year old, it could prob be your tank maturing.

You might want to throw a couple fighting conchs in there.

I tend to agree with my bro' Joe. I have a 135 FOWLR with 4 Triggers and a Cleaner Wrasse. It's been up and running for 10 months now. I had the same prob. Brown diatoms on the sand, but nowhere else. I really didn't concern myself with it until about two months ago. That was when I started incorporating an additional routine during monthly maintenance. That being....when I "blast" (sorry...can't think of another word) clean the live rock with a turkey baster I now give the surface of the sand a "blast" also. But nothing serious. Not really a "blast". More like a "puff" and just on the surface. Just enough to kinda disturb it about a 1/2" depth. Have had no brown diatoms on the sand since.
Maybe worth a try :confused: ....?

Cheers:smile:,

Bb
 

suck out the sand and go barebottom. :lol:

Sand sifting goby
 

:wink:

... sand sifting starfish