Diatoms spreading very quickly

[taylorn13]

Hi! I’ve had a saltwater tank for almost 2 months now and added some beginner soft corals about a week or 2 ago. The corals are doing great, but I did notice a small patch of diatoms and left it for the night, woke up the next day and it seemed like it was all over my tank. I did a 50% water change, siphoned the sand to get the diatoms off and wiped off the glass. I’m 100% sure theyre diatoms and not dinos since I’ve encountered many diatoms from my freshwater keeping experiences. Today I woke up again and saw a tiny spot of diatoms and checked back around 6 hour later to find many more spots of diatoms. I just want to make sure that this is okay. I know that diatoms are common in newly set up tanks but I’m not sure if the rate they are spreading at is normal. I do have a couple nassarius and nerite snails in there but it seems to be spreading out of control. My water parameters are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 10ppm nitrates (20ppm before water change), 0 phosphates, 420ppm calcium, alk 10dKH, pH 8.0, temp 78°F, and sg 1.025. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[DylanE]

Completely normal. Diatoms come and go with your light cycle. Your tank is still super young and you can expect various algae to pop over the next months to a year. I wouldn’t worry about it, just keep up with your water changes and let things get settled.

 

[taylorn13]

Completely normal. Diatoms come and go with your light cycle. Your tank is still super young and you can expect various algae to pop over the next months to a year. I wouldn’t worry about it, just keep up with your water changes and let things get settled.

Thanks! Would you recommend still doing weekly and 50% water changes?

 

[DylanE]

Thanks! Would you recommend still doing weekly and 50% water changes?

That’s probably overkill. 10-15% weekly is pretty typical. Maybe 20-25 if you’re not running a skimmer or have hard corals and aren’t dosing (which you probably shouldn’t have in the tank at this point).

 

[taylorn13]

That’s probably overkill. 10-15% weekly is pretty typical. Maybe 20-25 if you’re not running a skimmer or have hard corals and aren’t dosing (which you probably shouldn’t have in the tank at this point).

No skimmer. Just softies so should be good! Thanks for the help again!

 

[DylanE]

No skimmer. Just softies so should be good! Thanks for the help again!

You’re welcome, happy to help. “The uglies” can be a frustrating time for a new saltwater tank. Just avoid trying to over correct and remember that the more stable conditions are, the faster they’ll pass. Good luck!

 

[taylorn13]

Feel like its starting to get out of hand again... Added some seachem phosguard to reduce silicates and phosphates, even though I have 0 phosphates. Not sure if anyone’s on this post anymore, but if there is please let me know if this is still okay. I’m sorry I’m starting to get paranoid because I don’t want this to kill my corals!!!

 

[ReeferJay86]

Feel like its starting to get out of hand again... Added some seachem phosguard to reduce silicates and phosphates, even though I have 0 phosphates. Not sure if anyone’s on this post anymore, but if there is please let me know if this is still okay. I’m sorry I’m starting to get paranoid because I don’t want this to kill my corals!!!

Mine is starting to look like that as well. My tank is 6 months old now. I didn’t see that big of a bloom until after I added coraline in a bottle from algae barn. I’m away from home for 2 weeks at a time for work so my wife does everything she can for me. I’ve also gone fallow for almost a 1.5 months as I lost my clowns to brook. I still have a cleaner shrimp, 4 hermit crabs, 2 RFA and 1 goniastrea. I feed algae wafers and brine shrimp to the corals.