Did diatoms drop my phosphate to zero?

[elorablue]

Just wondering.
Tank is a 75L cube in its' 8th week.
I test very regularly, almost every day at this point. I had the diatom scourge happen about a week ago. In 36 hours everything was covered with that charming brown.
Anyway, what I found interesting was the drop in phosphate directly coinciding with the diatoms.
Up until they hit my phosphates were in the 0.05 range give or take a point or two, but the day after they had dropped to zero and have remained there.
I got a significant clean up crew and the diatoms are basically gone (visually at least)
Just wondering if this drop is expected?
thanks for any thoughts

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Just wondering.
Tank is a 75L cube in its' 8th week.
I test very regularly, almost every day at this point. I had the diatom scourge happen about a week ago. In 36 hours everything was covered with that charming brown.
Anyway, what I found interesting was the drop in phosphate directly coinciding with the diatoms.
Up until they hit my phosphates were in the 0.05 range give or take a point or two, but the day after they had dropped to zero and have remained there.
I got a significant clean up crew and the diatoms are basically gone (visually at least)
Just wondering if this drop is expected?
thanks for any thoughts

Thoughts:
- yes algae consumes phosphates and nitrates
--- expect drop; its why macroalgae refugiums popular
- "significant CUC" ... now are they going to starve?
--- if they die then they'll contribute to phosphate rise if not removed
- going forward work on reducing silicate introductions

Another option was/is siphon out diatoms to remove excess silicate. See post #10 in this thread:

A Simple Guide To Common Problematic Algae And The Means To Control It..

As we all know algae is inevitable in both Marine and fresh water aquariums and if not watched and without proper procedures for removal can quickly turn a beautiful aquarium in to something that resembles a scene out of a old Swamp thing episode. Some are easy to control some are a non stop...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[elorablue]

Thanks very much for the reply. I assumed that the diatoms "ate" the phosphates but wanted to make sure. I'll be testing again today to see what's up.