Diatom Algae

[jeasko]

Just a quck question of weather this stuff only develops during cycling as i appear to have some but the tank has been set up since april but looks like some diatom algae is developing on some cured LR
have checked ammonia leves etc and all seems fine

 

[1entra]

Diatoms have been known to appear in tanks that have been set up years and are fully mature. There must have been a change in some of you water params to have caused it, or an increase in nutrients present in the water eg. nitrates or phosphates? If so then try to decrease these first.

What CUC have you got in there as certain members will help get rid/eat the diatoms eg. certain snails ie. astrea/turbo

 

[jeasko]

there are a number of turbos prob 8ish, ceryth (so unsure on the spelling) sand sifting snails, one huge blue hermit who doesnt allow any other hermits to survive, 2 blood shrimps s sand sifting stars and a sally lightfoot crab, i may well up the number of turbos in there, but alos I have had an issue with algae that undergoing removal via rowaphos not quite there but not far off, you post really confirms what i thought that the algae prob may be the cause of the diatom.

anything else you can suggest that might like to munch on this stuff?

 

[1entra]

Well you main objective should be to try and get rid of the nurients that are feeding the algae. Do you use RO water? If not the you should consider using it. Rowaphos should help. Also have you ever considered having a refugium or sump? If so you could always grow some macroalgae in there that should help outcompete any nuisance algae you may have in the tank!

How about trying some trochus or nassarius snails? I find mine to be grate algae grazers especially the trochus that clean everything including LR, sand, glass and even powerheads etc!

PS. Its spelt "Cerith" snails

 

[jeasko]

ientra
new i had spelt that one wrong but just couldnt think how it should have been spelt !

Looks like I may have found a culprit, about 2 weeks ago I had to remove my small powerhead (the second of which is more than adeqaute for the size tank but doesnt do much on the surface) which was in there jus to create surface agitation, since then the lovely film started to develop over the top of the water, in addition to this my LFS advised due to the phosphate prob it may be worth using a gravel filter to clear some phosphate/silicate out of the substrate, i always thought it got rid of too much good stuff so neather bothered, having done this i think the silicte level rose and what with this horrible film over the top of the water has started to produce diatoms.
So my soulution replace the powerhead (Tunze 6025 nanostream great peice of kit for surface agitation!) and replace teh rowaphos in the filter as i suspect it was saturated and not drawing anything more out of the water.

as for the sump option I have been looking into but am a little hesitant due to the cost especially at this time of the year, and am currently looking into how it all works and how i would go about swapping it over, so hopefully with the next year it will be up and working correctly!

As for RO i would have to be nuts not to use it when its so easy to get round here, so have used it from day one (145 ltr in containers is a hell of a lot to move around! and get into the tank) and have never put tap water or any other type of water in the tank