Diatoms not going away.

Tofty85

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 16, 2016
Messages
92
Reaction score
102
Location
UK
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Whats your feeding sched like ? What kind of food/ how many fish / how do you feed the fish ?frozen ? Pellets ? If frozen do you strain the cubes?

I feed frozen mysis every other day which is strained, I have been through a range of foods, to see if that was the cause but the amount I feed would not introduce enough silicates to cause this much of a diatom issue, I run GFO pretty much all the time, and have patches of sponge which would consume the residual silicate from the food
 

NanaReefer

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 9, 2011
Messages
7,212
Reaction score
1,673
Location
Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Out of interest what lights do you have on your tank?

Radion Gen3 and yes it seems to have gotten worse since I started running this unit back in March 2016. Within the past 2 months I've completely turned off both red/green and am running whites at just 5% max at peak hours.
 

Tofty85

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 16, 2016
Messages
92
Reaction score
102
Location
UK
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Radion Gen3 and yes it seems to have gotten worse since I started running this unit back in March 2016. Within the past 2 months I've completely turned off both red/green and am running whites at just 5% max at peak hours.

My current tank has 2 kessil a160s with the spectral controller from the start, I have been up and down the scale 0% to 100% in colour and intensity settings, I read somewhere that low light conditions can encourage diatom growth, aswel as too much light, last couple of weeks I have mine at 25% intensity, with 45% colour (which is a more blueish look) ive noticed it's taking longer for them to grow back
 

saltyfilmfolks

Lights! Camera! Reef!
View Badges
Joined
Feb 25, 2014
Messages
28,739
Reaction score
40,932
Location
California
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
If there's no silicate source and low numbers in the tank, try this.
elevate and maintain a ph of 8.4,8.5 with kalwasser for a week. the colony should crash and die after a few days.

@NanaReefer you should ask Randy about this in the LRS carbon source thread. Yous and refferfoxx's are the two most mysterious cases I've seen in the 2 years or so Ive been on the boards.
 

Tofty85

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 16, 2016
Messages
92
Reaction score
102
Location
UK
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
If there's no silicate source and low numbers in the tank, try this.
elevate and maintain a ph of 8.4,8.5 with kalwasser for a week. the colony should crash and die after a few days.

@NanaReefer you should ask Randy about this in the LRS carbon source thread. Yous and refferfoxx's are the two most mysterious cases I've seen in the 2 years or so Ive been on the boards.

I am currently using kalkwasser in my top off water, but I dont get enough evaporation for it to make much of a difference highest my pH goes is 8.3, I suppose I can try dosing a concentrated solution,

thanks for this tip
 

saltyfilmfolks

Lights! Camera! Reef!
View Badges
Joined
Feb 25, 2014
Messages
28,739
Reaction score
40,932
Location
California
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I am currently using kalkwasser in my top off water, but I dont get enough evaporation for it to make much of a difference highest my pH goes is 8.3, I suppose I can try dosing a concentrated solution,

thanks for this tip
Thank Julian Sprung.
 
OP
OP
C

chris124

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 23, 2013
Messages
402
Reaction score
76
Location
nc
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I'm trying a blackout with the tank covered for complete darkness. well see what happens.
 

NanaReefer

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 9, 2011
Messages
7,212
Reaction score
1,673
Location
Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
If there's no silicate source and low numbers in the tank, try this.
elevate and maintain a ph of 8.4,8.5 with kalwasser for a week. the colony should crash and die after a few days.

@NanaReefer you should ask Randy about this in the LRS carbon source thread. Yous and refferfoxx's are the two most mysterious cases I've seen in the 2 years or so Ive been on the boards.

I did start a thread addressing this issue with Randy couple days ago. Asking if the Probiotics could in anyway be causing/feeding this stuff.
 

James Kanouff

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 19, 2016
Messages
366
Reaction score
253
Location
Orlando lake nona area
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
My quick opinion is first make sure your using good DI resin and change it as needed. Everyone always says check light n flow which is also worth mentioning, and last if this is the only issue you have, then let it alone.

If it goes away every day when lights shut off thats a clear indicator for people usually of the source of the issue.
or like you said, gets worse when you do water changes, then that indicates supply water quality or sudden water clarity increase/ decrease is causing the issue i think.

When we dive in the ocean we see cyano, diatoms, coral die off patches and all sorts of "bad things" that are completely normal. Get a diamond goby he will turn the sand over like crazy and probably fix most of it.

If you start placing corals and things are not going good coral health wise, then look at other parameters or stability issues.

Stuff grows on the glass. Stuff grows on the sand. Stuff grows on the rocks. Stuff grows which means your doing pretty good considering most folks post are saying everything is dieing!

Good luck
 

saltyfilmfolks

Lights! Camera! Reef!
View Badges
Joined
Feb 25, 2014
Messages
28,739
Reaction score
40,932
Location
California
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I did start a thread addressing this issue with Randy couple days ago. Asking if the Probiotics could in anyway be causing/feeding this stuff.
yea, Ive been doing some reading on it too. The food imo has a bit of vitamin C , a carbon source as I mentioned. that's just good bacteria fuel as are aminos.
As Ive been reading too though cyano does feed off of C02 as well and the can be precipitated out of the sand from the aragonite substrate and the macrofauna and bacteria in it. Cyano too is fueled by C02 as its photosynthetic. So if you have an amount of Po4 bound to the sand plus the Cos from the good bacteria it a never ending cycle of cyano growth. The article referenced redox (orp, randy doesnt seem to prefer it as I read his article), but its possible that changing the Ph (tus redox/orp) may eliminate the cyano and its cycle.
Again, yours and reeferfoxx's tanks are two of the most mind bending tank problems Ive run across. I know Reeeferfoxx's tank was cleaner than an autoclave and the nutrints were undetectable on every test she preformed. SO much so de wound up having to dose No3 and P04 just to stop the corals from dying.
So it's led me to wonder is its not an accidentaly low redox in both cases..
And fwiw as I read both Randys and sprungs artcles, redox totals are like trying to figure out the wind on our planet. there's Sooo many variables that add up to the total. Ie rock, sand, bacterial activity, gas exchange, mineral content, rate of photosynthesis etc..
I joked with Reeferfoxx several times and suggested that the tank was just too dang clean and she should dump a can of Fiji Mud in. Turns out it was a good instinct as it would provide a hugely diverse bacterial population, algal diversity(coralline) and micro fauna population. foraminiferans and a more harmless populations of diatoms to cycle through plus a huge trace mineral source, thus changing redox slightly and competing with the cyano directly for nutrints.
weird right?

the other solution naturally was to change substrates to a more chemically inert one. Thats prob why the old schoolers used to have favorite play sand mixes I believe. .
 

Tofty85

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 16, 2016
Messages
92
Reaction score
102
Location
UK
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I did start a thread addressing this issue with Randy couple days ago. Asking if the Probiotics could in anyway be causing/feeding this stuff.

I am currently using aquaforest probiotic reef salt, just as an experiment really to see if it has any effect on the diatoms, I though maybe I could out compete it with beneficial bacteria.

Although my tank water is crystal clear and corals doing well from the probiotics, the diatoms still persist and have not changed any from when I used coral pro salt or Kent reef salt for that matter
 

saltyfilmfolks

Lights! Camera! Reef!
View Badges
Joined
Feb 25, 2014
Messages
28,739
Reaction score
40,932
Location
California
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I am currently using aquaforest probiotic reef salt, just as an experiment really to see if it has any effect on the diatoms, I though maybe I could out compete it with beneficial bacteria.

Although my tank water is crystal clear and corals doing well from the probiotics, the diatoms still persist and have not changed any from when I used coral pro salt or Kent reef salt for that matter
Diatoms appear only in part due to nutrients a probiotics is a nutrient control method. It speeds the bio filter.
 

blasto_master

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Messages
84
Reaction score
51
Location
Chicopee, Massachusetts
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have had a diatom problem for a while now and its not getting any better. My Nitrates are 0 and with GFO my po4 is under 0.03 ppm. I'm starting to think its my RODI water. Because if I go a month with out a water change it slows down. But as soon as I do my water change its like pouring gas on a fire. What I dont understand is the water coming out is reading 0 tds with a inline tds meter and a hand held meter. My water company dose you well water so I guess that could be a problem. Other than the diatoms algae is no problem knock on wood.

Dinoflagellates is probably what you have not diatoms.
 

Tofty85

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 16, 2016
Messages
92
Reaction score
102
Location
UK
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Diatoms appear only in part due to nutrients a probiotics is a nutrient control method. It speeds the bio filter.

I understand that, my thought was by by processing nutrients faster therefore getting them out of the system faster along with DOCs by skimming, carbon etc... If the diatoms are there only in part because of the nutrients, that leg of the tripod so to speak would be gone, along with silicate control and reduced lighting, how many more factors come into play with these pesky diatoms...Haha!
 

Brew12

Electrical Gru
View Badges
Joined
Aug 14, 2016
Messages
22,488
Reaction score
61,020
Location
Decatur, AL
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
But doesn't Dinoflagellates look snooty and forum air bubbles? If anyone has a good pic of dinos please post them.
Did you get your test kit and I missed the results?
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 76 51.4%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 76 51.4%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 37 25.0%
  • None.

    Votes: 32 21.6%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 6.1%

New Posts

Back
Top