Diatoms will not go away.

[bitumenman]

I have blacked out my tank for Christmas, rust came back after a week. Now I have no rust when lights turn on but in a few hrs it's all over the sand. I've been trying to remove silicate with out media, filter them out. My tank is a couple years old and I haven't had this problem befor, I can't believe it's a cycle, tank is old?

 

[JMSKI333]

Are you 100% sure it Diatoms?

Do you have a skimmer on the tank? Does it seem to be working efficiently?

 

[Waters]

If you don't have them already, I would throw some turbo snails in there. Mine did/do an unbelievable job of cleaning the tank of diatoms. if my kids cleaned their rooms half as good as these snails clean, my house would be spotless :-) Anyways, that will keep them under control but you still need to figure out what is causing them. What are your water parameters? Are you using RO/DI water? Have you added anything new (livestock, or equipment)? Have you changed anything regarding your maintenance of the tank?

 

[bitumenman]

Maintenance has not changed, 40% water change a month, 180g SWC protein skimmer, filter cloth for carbon phosphates and silicates, blue floss mats, 100lbs live rock, prim all ATO, 2 turbos, sand star fish, vertex led lighting, 8 hrs day time lighting reversed lighting to sump at night to keep ph, I don't use r/o water because lack of space, low feeding, solid food for amenities

 

[bitumenman]

My skimmer keeps a good sludge in it, it is watered down a bit but the smell tells me it works good

 

[bitumenman]

I'm going to restack my lr when I get home

 

[saltyhog]

If it is diatoms it's kind of strange to happen to a tank this old.

I had a two month long battle that just now is ending. It started 6 months in after the usual brief interlude after the cycle. Mine seemed to be triggered by about 30 lbs of new dry rock I added and a bunch of epoxy I used to anchor frags. Not sure if that was coincidence or not but it's the only possible source of silicates I could think of.

In your case I bet it's from your water source. Sometimes municipal water sources and wells water quality can change over time. Can you buy RO/DI water from your LFS or a friend/reef club? It might be worth a try. Hope you get it cleared up, I know how frustrating it is to look at a sand bed covered in brown sugar!

 

[coralfarm123]

It could be dinoflagellates and not diatoms if they are not present at lights on and get worse as the day goes on.

 

[bitumenman]

Yes they get worse throughout the day

 

[bitumenman]

I never had them till I started tossing plankton into the tank...

 

[StikHedRon]

Your tank looks like it has some nutrient problems, get some gfo on there and add some MB7 and start hitting the water changes

 

[Aqua fire/medic]

Your tank looks like it has some nutrient problems, get some gfo on there and add some MB7 and start hitting the water changes

This! Why are you dosing phyto? This might be 1 of your problems.

 

[bitumenman]

I stopped the phyto, I was trying something new to feed zoas & polyps

 

[bitumenman]

I was thinking bio load too, thanks all you have helped.
Plan now is change the lr display and 90% water change over two weeks. GFO and filter cloth should fix the rest.
Any other remidies?

 

[bitumenman]

What's MB7?

 

[Waters]

MB7 is MicroBacter 7...a product made by Brightwell Aquatics.