Are they a problem?
No, they’ll go away on their own. They feed off of silicates, once they use up all of the silicates in your water they’ll die off.
Yes only 9 days old and already have diatoms lol
I thought they come after weeks….
OK so here’s this problem I’d like you to let me know if this is a huge deal so the closest saltwater fish store near me that sells roadie water is 40 minutes away I had to work today so I didn’t have enough time to schedule an appointment with him because the aquarium shop that I go to you have to schedule an appointment to get rodi water and I have no rodi water So unfortunately my tank was running a little low on water today and my pump was struggling a little bit because the water was dropping so low so I had to use tapwater I got it as closest possible to the water temperature in my tank and I used prime to get the chlorine out and I put maybe 1 gallon in my tank will I be OKDiatoms are a brown algae that typically appear in a reef tank that has just completed its cycle but they can also appear in an established reef tank. They can cover sand, rock, pumps, glass, you name it. Diatoms look ugly but in most cases they are harmless so the key is to not panic when they appear.
Diatoms feed mainly off of silicates but also consume dissolved organic compounds, phosphate and nitrates. Unfiltered tap water can contain silicates and is a good way to jump start a bloom if you use it to mix salt or to replace water that evaporated from the tank. The best way to prevent this from happening is to filter water through a RODI unit
Although you can still get a diatom bloom when using RODI if the cartridge that removes silicates expires.
diatoms are typically harmless to a captive reef and can be beaten once their food source expires. Once you put the kibosh on the source, the outbreak should last a couple of weeks so just be patient and it will pass. For major outbreaks you may want to consider the three day blackout. Diatoms are easily wiped from the glass with a mag float, a turkey baster or a toothbrush can access other areas of the tank. Be prepared for them to re-establish themselves quickly, they are likely to be able to resettle and have exponential growth rates.
To prevent their return, practice good aquarium husbandry by doing regular water changes, keep the substrate clean, don’t overfeed the fish, ensure your skimmer is running at an optimal level and rinse out filter socks and sponges on a regular basis.
Some cleaner crew to help control it are : Cerith snails, Nerite snails and Trochus snails and also Astraea snails are effective at removing diatoms.
I mean, you have to do what you have to do, but if you’re not planning on getting an RODI filter, it might not be a bad idea to keep 5-10 gallons of extra of RODI on hand (or distilled from the grocery store), on TOP of what you predict you’ll need for top-offs and water changes. Its just never a bad idea to have extra in case something happens and you can’t re-up at the lfs or enough to do a water change should a tank emergency arise.
Thankyou for all of the info!
Its more of an appearance issue than a nuisance. You can siphon the gravel and reduce light intensity of you wish but Not necessary .
Thankyou!
