I don't understand the question.Where do they come from?
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I don't understand the question.Where do they come from?
While Boston is near the ocean, it seemed unlikely to me that diatoms were carried by the wind to an aquarium inside a home. It turns out diatoms can form spores, giving them a greater chance of finding a home by floating in the air.I don't understand the question.
@taricha, did your small aquariums used in the study of the development of nitrification capability ever develop diatoms? I would be interested in the treatments that did not involve introducing any livestock.While Boston is near the ocean, it seemed unlikely to me that diatoms were carried by the wind to an aquarium inside a home. It turns out diatoms can form spores, giving them a greater chance of finding a home by floating in the air.
I would also like to investigate the possibility that bottled bacteria are a source of diatoms in a new aquarium. The other source is just spores carried home from the pet shop.
This might seem like counting the number of angels dancing on the head of a pin
While Boston is near the ocean, it seemed unlikely to me that diatoms were carried by the wind to an aquarium inside a home. It turns out diatoms can form spores, giving them a greater chance of finding a home by floating in the air.
I would also like to investigate the possibility that bottled bacteria are a source of diatoms in a new aquarium. The other source is just spores carried home from the pet shop.
This might seem like counting the number of angels dancing on the head of a pin
I so envy your house location!!Well, I started with live sand, so they probably came from there. But I do live on the ocean, the water is probably 30 yards from my house. Regarding my windows, yes there are some windows near the tank. I haven’t turn the lights on yet.
Those systems never got any light, so they developed no photosynthetic organisms. Nitrate was stable in those systems over days, weeks, months.@taricha, did your small aquariums used in the study of the development of nitrification capability ever develop diatoms? I would be interested in the treatments that did not involve introducing any livestock.
Thanks for the update.Those systems never got any light, so they developed no photosynthetic organisms. Nitrate was stable in those systems over days, weeks, months.
Additionally, they were each started with some low quality Petco "live rock" in addition to biospira. So they would have had diatoms introduced initially anyway.
I've always taken the notion of diatom and cyano (and probably Dino) introduction as inevitable eventually with live rock and coral additions. So never really looked into the exact methods for them becoming introduced to the system.
To y'all's point, it might be interesting to see which typical organisms actually do just come in on the air and are unavoidable, versus which ones need actual material brought into the system to gain entry.
I'm kinda a fan of the idea that some form of cyano would just find its way in on the air.I am definitely a fan of “the aquarist introduces all the pests”. It seems that introduction of pests by air, splash from another aquarium or carried on the aquarist hands from the pet shop could happen but unlikely to be an important route of inoculation.
Sure, the chance inoculation cannot be eliminated. I was thinking about all the contaminated solids added to an aquarium being set up and realized the aquarium hobby is one big pest swap.I'm kinda a fan of the idea that some form of cyano would just find its way in on the air.
I mean, there's types of photosynthetic bacteria that can harvest "light" from just geothermal heat in the deep ocean. They are like the ultimate demonstration of "Life finds a way".
Feed them. A new tank has no food.So I have 50 banded Trochus snails coming tomorrow. I got them here. I read somewhere to get 1 snail for every 1-5 gallons. So for a 240 gallon tank, that's probably not even enough. But my LFS advisor thinks it is too much - the thinking is that if they die due to some lingering ammonia in the tank or something, that would be a lot of dead snails rotting in the tank. Thoughts? Should I just add 10-20 of them?
And should I quarantine them? Dip them? Rinse? This will be the first living things I've added to the tank other than cycling bacteria, so I'm nervous about contamination.
I’ll give them some viddles after they’re done munching on the diatoms.Feed them. A new tank has no food.
How small a nano? This is a 240 gallon tank, so that’s 12 20 gallon tanks…. I could also put some in the sump, plenty of diatoms there too.I was given the advice recently to just temperature acclimate my new snails. It "worked" and all survived, but I don't know if better advice exists.
I think your tank does have food unless things have changed from your original pictures?
Short of throwing in some busted up algae wafers, you CAN turn up your lights to encourage more growth.
50 seems like a lot, but I have always had Nanos. If you had a do over, start small and increase if they can't keep up.
Those are TINY!! I wonder if they grow to "normal" size or if they are a dwarf species? My trochus are almost as big as some of my Mexican turbos.So I have 50 banded Trochus snails coming tomorrow. I got them here. I read somewhere to get 1 snail for every 1-5 gallons. So for a 240 gallon tank, that's probably not even enough. But my LFS advisor thinks it is too much - the thinking is that if they die due to some lingering ammonia in the tank or something, that would be a lot of dead snails rotting in the tank. Thoughts? Should I just add 10-20 of them?
And should I quarantine them? Dip them? Rinse? This will be the first living things I've added to the tank other than cycling bacteria, so I'm nervous about contamination.
Feeding them does not stop them from eating diatoms. They are like dogs, they eat and eat. Keep them healthy and they will return the favor.I’ll give them some viddles after they’re done munching on the diatoms.
Here is an interesting article in Science Digest that supports .. the "on the air" thought ...They actually call it the "air bridge" hypothesisI'm kinda a fan of the idea that some form of cyano would just find its way in on the air.
I mean, there's types of photosynthetic bacteria that can harvest "light" from just geothermal heat in the deep ocean. They are like the ultimate demonstration of "Life finds a way".