Diatoms..assuming

[Sal713]

Tank is a few months old. Got a good case of diatoms. Started out as small 1/8 diameter circles on the rock. Covered my rocks in about a week. Couldn’t get my nitrates and phosphates up. Started dosing. Got them up to a good level and dosed some vibrant. Looked better within a few days. Dosed for about 1-1/2 weeks. Rocks and sand were just about clean and bam! Another round of diatoms. Rocks are covered again while I’m still dosing vibrant! Using r/o water, parameters are good. Any thoughts?

 

[Sal713]

 

[Garf]

Went to my LFS today and they are still selling vibrant, £75 a bottle, lol

 

[Reffetsevla]

I'm 4.5 month's in myself on the new tank (~15yrs exp) and so far I've had a couple outbreaks. It goes through a few phases and you may just be getting the last stages of the bacteria getting established. The thing that helped my tank the most was dosing live phytoplankton for about 5 days, then putting in a fuge once I got PO4 up. I had already put in pods a few weeks earlier, so adding the live phyto allowed them and the bacteria to flourish. Once they were outcompeting my diatoms, they were simply gone in days.

I'm currently growing a few SPS (among my Zs and Ps) and they are growing like weeds, I have had to start reducing my CUC as there's now so many pods and such in the tank there's nothing for them to eat. The pods are on the glass and walls 24/7 at this point, kinda nuts. In a good way.

What is needed is something to outcompete the diatoms, usually that means bringing your PO4 and NO3 up more so there is more nutrients in the tank for the other bacteria/pods to get going. I had run my NO3 at ~30 and PO4 and ~0.2 for a few weeks to get everything to out compete the diatoms. Once I had that started, I added a fuge to help reduce those back down. So far so good **knocks on wood**

What are your tank parameters? SG, dKH, Ca, PO4, NO3?

Edit: Also don't panic, diatoms are pretty harmless. If they get on your coral just blow them off with a turkey baster. If it's cyano or dino's, slight different story but similar treatment I believe. At least for Dino's for sure.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Went to my LFS today and they are still selling vibrant, £75 a bottle, lol

Is that <20$ u.s?

 

[Sal713]

1.024
Ca 430
Dkh 10.6
Po4 .06
No3 5-10
Ph 8.2

 

[Sal713]

But another round while I’m already dosing vibrant?

 

[Reffetsevla]

Parameters look solid, I think you may just need to raise your PO4 and NO3 so the other bacteria and the like can out compete the diatoms some, other times there's just no substitute for time and the tank establishing more.

What is your livestock like? Anything in it yet?

 

[Garf]

1.024
Ca 430
Dkh 10.6
Po4 .06
No3 5-10
Ph 8.2

Looks like you need more snails, maybe an urchin. Parameters have little correlation with primary producers unless they are unhealthily low.

 

[Sal713]

Nothing major..a few fish and some misc frags.

 

[Lavey29]

Why are you dosing chemicals on a brand new tank. Ugly phases are part of the maturing process to help your tank develop biodiversity and microfauna. Diatoms go away on their own in a few weeks. Vibrant will open the door for significant other problems possibly.

 

[Sal713]

I dont plan on dosing the vibrant anymore..read good and bad. Just surprised that they were just about gone and whamo! Another round.

 

[Lavey29]

I dont plan on dosing the vibrant anymore..read good and bad. Just surprised that they were just about gone and whamo! Another round.

You will have various types of algae over the next 4 months and beyond most likely as your tank matures.

 

[Sal713]

Thanks for the input