Diatoms reappearing in an old tank

[cincyJames]

I am currently in the process of converting my fowlr 75g into a reef tank. The tank and fish have been in this tank for probably 2-3 years. I have been running my new light for the last couple weeks and yesterday noticed diatoms growing on some of my rock and the sand. Is this normal? Is it caused by switching from just normal florescent lighting to a 2 150w mh and 2 t5 combo light or what? I havent added any new fish, rock- ect. i havent checked my ammonia/ nitrite levels in forever because like i said its been up and running for years. Nitrates are at 10ppm-which i know is high for a reef tank and ive been doing larger water changes bi-weekly to drop it and phosphates are a little high right now also, but dropping with each change. Could the diatoms be from changing larger volumes of water more often?

[Urchinhead]

They shouldn't be from large water changes unless the water is adding TDS into the tank. Are you mixing your own water or using premade?

 

If you are doing your own make sure its RODI and check the TDS if its someone else's think about doing it yourself. The MightyMite RODI unit is $99 from Air Water & Ice and is a decent small RODI unit. Their Typhoon series is also very good. Also go with Oceanic DD salt. At this point it seems to be the best salt out there.

 

Diatoms are because you have too much PO4 and NH3 in the water and they are using it to grow.

 

It could be caused by you stirring up something off the rocks or the sand or it could be your tank has too many fish for its size/filtration capacity, you are using something like Bioballs which are nitrate factories due to detritus buildup or because you are over feeding.

 

Get the PO4 and NH3 under control and the diatoms will go away over time. If you want to accellerate the process and if you are still FOLR then turn the lights off and make sure the tank is in total darkness and do several 25% water changes until you have a total turn over of system water with good source water vacuuming up the diatoms where you can. Also pull any filtration media that may be saturated with detritus like sponges, filter pads, etc.

 

Depriving them of light plus nutrients will kill them off quickly.

 

As to your question on lights, if the bulbs are fresh and not old then there should be no spectrum shift to cause algae to bloom.

 

Also look at something called Old Tank Syndrome.

[ScubaJ]

Urchin, nailed it.

 

Nutrients + Light = Algae. Not being able to remove light, means you have to remove the nutrients. (Nitrates / Phophates / DOCs)

[cincyJames]

yeah thats what i assumed. my phosphates are pretty high right now-what is the quickest way to lower them and also for long term success in keeping them lower. Like i mentioned before i have done 2 25-30g water changes in the past 3 weeks and still they are registering like 10ppm. I have changed my feeding habits and have added chaeto to the tank until my sump is done. Also could phosphates be leaching out of the rocks due to long term exposure to high concentration. i also have read that a 3 day blackout wont really effect anything in the tank and might help eliminate the algae quicker-thoughts? I only have some gsp and a small mushroom in there right now, so i'm not really worried about them

[aquariumcentral]

Do your lights have individual bulb controls? Maybe adjust how long they are on for. I would probably do 8 hours with the t5's and have the mh on for 4 hours.

[Deano]

I hate to disagree with the other posts on this issue, there reasoning is sound for other types of algae blooms but as for Diatoms I disagree. I find that changing lights will cause the Diatom bloom. I also find if you add a new rock or sand to a established system you will get diatom blooms on the new additions. It may be the Diatoms are feeding off something on the new additions and once what ever is on them is gone they will disappear, now what I can't figure is the light issue. Maybe the change in light spectrum.

 

Point in case:

I recently built a 20 l, see my build tread, this tank is plumbed into my 135 gal tanks sump. So basically I have added another 20 gallons to my 135 gal system. It has new lighting over it 4X T5 96w total. I used rock from my 135 gal refugium to scape this tank , so it has already been in this water and long time cured. The only thing that was not in the main tank added to this new tank was the sand. It was new dry sand. This tank had been up for about a week, the only critters added were some corals from the main tank and 1 very tiny Cherub angel. My point is there was no additional bioload made due to this addition. I have no diatom blooms in the main tank. But I have diatoms growing on the new tanks glass and on the sand bed as well there is a smaller amount on the rock from my refugium. Since there was no change in PO4s, NH3 or additional nutrients added to the system based on the other posts I should not have diatoms. Yet I do.

 

For what ever reason you have the diatoms rest assured they will soon pass.

Edited December 15, 2010 by Deano

[Reefsavor]

Diatoms show up from silica 90% of the time. If phosphate is higher than normal (had an influx) then this can happen. Even in reef tanks that run high nutrients with happy corals and no algae issues, add sand, new rock, and some of the bio media’s out there and poof! Looks like you are cycling again. I have a 60gallon AIO mixed reef, over a year old, low nutrient system (not purposefully just happen stance) I removed some live rock because I had too much and added marine pure balls for bio media to supplement my plans of slowly moving towards minimalist scape. 1 week later, diatoms all over the sand and back acrylic. I run a 7stage RODI from brs with 0 tds, my only change and the cause was the silica content in the bio media is high because of its ceramic makeup. It’s frustrating but don’t panic like I did lol. Try and focus your problem solving skills towards silica, once ruled out, phosphate/nitrate, then if that fails I would get an ICP year. 

[mcarroll]

I agree with the last two posts.

 

IMO I would not panic and just wait it out....if it's diatoms, they will "bloom themselves out" within a day or so (usually).

 

Your nutrient levels (no3 and po4) sound like they are spot on BTW, so stop "battling them down".   

 

No need.....plus you'll just turn the diatom bloom into a dino bloom or cyano bloom if you succeed in lowering nutrients much more.

 

What you want is for coralline algae to take over and grow everywhere, and it need nutrients, just like your corals will.....has coralline been growing under the FOWLR lighting or are your rocks still pretty bare/grey?

 

Pic?

[FISHnChix]

3 hours ago, mcarroll said:

I agree with the last two posts.

 

IMO I would not panic and just wait it out....if it's diatoms, they will "bloom themselves out" within a day or so (usually).

 

Your nutrient levels (no3 and po4) sound like they are spot on BTW, so stop "battling them down".   

 

No need.....plus you'll just turn the diatom bloom into a dino bloom or cyano bloom if you succeed in lowering nutrients much more.

 

What you want is for coralline algae to take over and grow everywhere, and it need nutrients, just like your corals will.....has coralline been growing under the FOWLR lighting or are your rocks still pretty bare/grey?

 

Pic?

You realize that you guys responded to a 10 year old post😱😱😱... haha I've done it a few times too 😋

[mcarroll]

On 12/13/2019 at 9:18 AM, FISHnChix said:

You realize that you guys responded to a 10 year old post😱😱😱... haha I've done it a few times too 😋

 

Can you tell me what's wrong with posting to an old thread?

 

Do you think @Christopher Marks would promote these old theads on the sidebar if he didn't want them to draw attention? 

 

Would he leave these old threads unlocked if he didn't want new posts in them?

 

 

[FISHnChix]

6 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

 

Can you tell me what's wrong with posting to an old thread?

 

Do you think @Christopher Marks would promote these old theads on the sidebar if he didn't want them to draw attention? 

 

Would he leave these old threads unlocked if he didn't want new posts in them?

 

 

Sensitive much???🤔... feel free to post to decade old post .. Most people actually appreciate when someone points out that they could be wasting there time on an old post.. carry on...