Diatom bloom in Refugium

[JCOLE]

I recently added Chaeto a little over 2 weeks ago. I have a 100 watt 5000k CFL bulb over the Chaeto. Everything was clean and green up until a couple days ago. Now there is what looks like Diatoms growing all over the Chaeto and glass.

Will this go away? Also will cause issues in my DT?

 

[Brad Miller]

Looks more like Cyanobacteria from what I see

 

[JCOLE]

Looks more like Cyanobacteria from what I see

I hope not. Will this spread to my DT or stay contained to my fuge?

 

[Brad Miller]

Is it from low water flow through the sump ?

 

[JCOLE]

Is it from low water flow through the sump ?

Could be. Do you think that could be the problem? Currently using a 3/4 siphon drain. Was going to add a 1" drain as well to speed up flow.

 

[Brad Miller]

So we can help you better, can You tell us more about your tank, sump (added later or things that changed recently) age, parameters, lighting, and pics under white lights would help too.

 

[Keen4]

I wonder what ever happened with this situation. I’m having the same exact issue. I cleaned up the sump but some of the dirty water got into my DT and now that water is cloudy. Am I going to have a diatom bloom in my DT now? New tank. Week 7 in cycling- here’s my perimeters;

no3: 10ppm
Po4: .5ppm
Ph: 8.2
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Mg: 1440ppm
Ca: 500
Dkh: 12.5

sump now has a flow pump- didn’t before. And I think I just siphoned out a majority of my copepods. They were feeding on the algae in the refugium glass. I think it was brown algae/diatoms from the nitrate spike and phosphates.

 

[JCOLE]

I wonder what ever happened with this situation. I’m having the same exact issue. I cleaned up the sump but some of the dirty water got into my DT and now that water is cloudy. Am I going to have a diatom bloom in my DT now? New tank. Week 7 in cycling- here’s my perimeters;

no3: 10ppm
Po4: .5ppm
Ph: 8.2
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Mg: 1440ppm
Ca: 500
Dkh: 12.5

sump now has a flow pump- didn’t before. And I think I just siphoned out a majority of my copepods. They were feeding on the algae in the refugium glass. I think it was brown algae/diatoms from the nitrate spike and phosphates.

It cleared up within a couple weeks. The problem was I added a new tank(fuge) to my existing system. Beneficial bacteria, etc was not established in the new tank yet. I found that whenever I add anything new to an existing system it will bring in Dinos, diatoms, etc until the beneficial bacteria can outcompete and establish themselves.

Of course this is my theory and anecdotal but this has happened 3 times now when added a new tank to my system.

Your system is still young. Give it some time and add some beneficial bacteria. It should go away on it's own once established.

 

[Keen4]

Thanks for the update and advice. Ill add some more Dr Tims ASAP. I added two bottles already and then some eco balance 2 weeks ago.