Diatoms not going away.

twilliard

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Dinoflagellates is probably what you have not diatoms.

This right here opens up the question "what truly is it" and time for a microscope to step in.
There are hundreds of different forms of diatoms. There are a few thousand species of dinoflagellates. Dino's do not have to look like "snot" as that is a particular species.
 

Reef_Collector28

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Must be the RO, but try to syphon as much as possible because it's extremely hard in some cases to get rid of diatoms. If it's a newer tank then be patient because from one day to the next it will disappear. Also if you can do a couple of days of lights out after you syphon, add a power head or more flow
 
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chris124

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Must be the RO, but try to syphon as much as possible because it's extremely hard in some cases to get rid of diatoms. If it's a newer tank then be patient because from one day to the next it will disappear. Also if you can do a couple of days of lights out after you syphon, add a power head or more flow
The tank is two and a half years old and this has been going on for a good six months. I'm doing lights out now. But I have tried it once all ready and it came right back.
 

Brew12

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Rodi water reads 0 for silicates.
So much for an easy solution. :(

At least you an rule that out and move on. Maybe take some substrate and put it in a container with fresh mixed saltwater for a week and testing for silicates?
 
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chris124

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So much for an easy solution. :(

At least you an rule that out and move on. Maybe take some substrate and put it in a container with fresh mixed saltwater for a week and testing for silicates?
Didn't think about that. I will give it a try. I guess the good thing is everything in the tank seems happy the sand just looks bad.
 

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Its very frustrating.

You got that right! Check this out! On/off for the last 2 plus years!
IMG_0912.JPG
 
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chris124

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You got that right! Check this out! On/off for the last 2 plus years!
IMG_0912.JPG
My lights have been out for three days. Today I turned them on for about a hour to feed the fish and in that short amount of time the sand was already starting to turn brown. This stuff is very hardy.
 

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I've decided I'm going to give h202 dosing a try for 5 days, I'm doubting that it's diatoms I have, due to what I've tried and the fact that i had Dino's before this, which I thought I got rid of, but now I'm thinking they didn't go anywhere, they just appeared as a different strain on my new sand bed which look like diatoms
 

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I've decided I'm going to give h202 dosing a try for 5 days, I'm doubting that it's diatoms I have, due to what I've tried and the fact that i had Dino's before this, which I thought I got rid of, but now I'm thinking they didn't go anywhere, they just appeared as a different strain on my new sand bed which look like diatoms

DinoX works great FYI.[emoji6]
 

NanaReefer

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I've decided I'm going to give h202 dosing a try for 5 days, I'm doubting that it's diatoms I have, due to what I've tried and the fact that i had Dino's before this, which I thought I got rid of, but now I'm thinking they didn't go anywhere, they just appeared as a different strain on my new sand bed which look like diatoms

I tried H2O2 for 2wks. Hope it works for you, it didn't for me.
 

Tofty85

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I tried H2O2 for 2wks. Hope it works for you, it didn't for me.

I already know it doesn't work for diatoms, but if I mine turns out to be Dino's then there's a possibility it will work, if it doesn't do anything then I would be tempted to try baker's yeast, I have read mixed results on yeast
 
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chris124

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I already know it doesn't work for diatoms, but if I mine turns out to be Dino's then there's a possibility it will work, if it doesn't do anything then I would be tempted to try baker's yeast, I have read mixed results on yeast
Can you post a pic?
 

erinmegan85

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I've had something similar going on and I just now have gotten it under control, or at least I think. I had to switch my lights to more blues than whites and I've also been dosing vibrant. Just put the fourth dose in yesterday and the brown nastiness is now 99.9% gone. Tried black outs, that didn't work. H2O2 pretty much demolished my frogspawn and wasn't really working anyways, so I gave up. I was to the point where I was about to break down the tank and start over, but this seems to be working.
 
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chris124

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I've had something similar going on and I just now have gotten it under control, or at least I think. I had to switch my lights to more blues than whites and I've also been dosing vibrant. Just put the fourth dose in yesterday and the brown nastiness is now 99.9% gone. Tried black outs, that didn't work. H2O2 pretty much demolished my frogspawn and wasn't really working anyways, so I gave up. I was to the point where I was about to break down the tank and start over, but this seems to be working.
Now that I think about it mine started after switching to LEDs. I'm going to just turn the blues on in the morning and see what happens.
 

erinmegan85

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Which LEDs do you have? I have a Hydra 52 HD and I went in and turned it to the 20K setting. Turn down the whites, greens and reds. :)
 

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