Established tank - cant get rid of Diatoms

[Cwentz758]

hello all

I have an established tank (4 years old) and im dealing with diatoms. its just on the sand, i suck it out and its back within a day. no silicates in the tank, will test RODI container. (assuming if none in tank then none in RODI. i added Arc Reef purple helix about 5 weeks ago to regrow my coraline and out compete the diatoms (no change). Also yesterday went 100% GFO in my reactor to see if that'll help.

current chemistry is
P03 .21
Nitrate 2-5 ppm
salinity 1.26
alk 10
cal 480
mg 1470

 

[vetteguy53081]

Reduce white intensity, increase Blue and add Chemipure blue

 

[Cwentz758]

Reduce white intensity, increase Blue and add Chemipure blue

My whites never go over 10% blues are 45%

 

[brandon429]

What an easy tank to take apart, clean the sand, put back after solid rinsing, be diatom free

of all the jobs ever collected in the sand rinse thread, this would top out as easiest with best sustained cure and most accessible system

that is hardly any invasion/ very low level. That it’s not worse means your tank is in great balance, it’s lacking the matched grazer nature would provide. Sand rinse = man grazer

 

[Payedjay]

hello all

I have an established tank (4 years old) and im dealing with diatoms. its just on the sand, i suck it out and its back within a day. no silicates in the tank, will test RODI container. (assuming if none in tank then none in RODI. i added Arc Reef purple helix about 5 weeks ago to regrow my coraline and out compete the diatoms (no change). Also yesterday went 100% GFO in my reactor to see if that'll help.

current chemistry is
P03 .21
Nitrate 2-5 ppm
salinity 1.26
alk 10
cal 480
mg 1470

Cover your tank and turn off lights for 3 days we’ll be gone

 

[Cwentz758]

Cover your tank and turn off lights for 3 days we’ll be gone

Did that. They came back two days later.

 

[Cwentz758]

So two days of GFO

Po3 is at 0...

now should I suck the sand and the brown won’t come back?

 

[brandon429]

no its more thorough than just dealing w the sand, check this out for half an hours read it covers several jobs:

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

its take apart cleaning. sand cleaning leaves everything in the tank and works around, we do opposite. you can see ID didnt matter, params, we never hesitated to produce a clean tank. no need to wait, just fix it in an hours time.

 

[Wampatom]

How do you know they are diatoms? Cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates also produce brown films of the substrate.

 

[Cwentz758]

How do you know they are diatoms? Cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates also produce brown films of the substrate.

It’s literally just a dusting it’s not thick or slimy looking

 

[Cwentz758]

no its more thorough than just dealing w the sand, check this out for half an hours read it covers several jobs:

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

its take apart cleaning. sand cleaning leaves everything in the tank and works around, we do opposite. you can see ID didnt matter, params, we never hesitated to produce a clean tank. no need to wait, just fix it in an hours time.

So what I’m getting out of this thread.

transfer all fish and corals to a temporary tank/tub.

do the same with my live rock. (Blow off/brush off and loose algae.)

and either rinse my sand or add completely new sand.

then re assemble the tank?

mid this the generic break down?

 

[brandon429]

agreed, the light ramp back up for the new tank/take 5-7 days to get back to full strength was our tuning trick to prevent stressing of corals...that and feed them nicely plus change a couple gallons water just after as increased in/out exchange work about 2 or 3 days after the re assembly. rinse the new sand, no need to change for new that is really good looking setup above its just lacking grazers, it should rinse fine and hold a long time after reset.

 

[Kellie in CA]

My tank was well established and I had the same issue, a brown dusting all over the sand. Easily blown or stirred away. I tried everything to get rid of it for months and months. Then it occurred to me that it might be dinos. Got a UV Sterilizer and it was gone within days.

 

[Cwentz758]

My tank was well established and I had the same issue, a brown dusting all over the sand. Easily blown or stirred away. I tried everything to get rid of it for months and months. Then it occurred to me that it might be dinos. Got a UV Sterilizer and it was gone within days.

Did you get a legit one from BRS or did you get a cheap simple one from amazon? I had a green killing machine one for a greeen out I had when I was brand new to the hobby

 

[Cwentz758]

Hmmm just tested RODI container for silicates using the salifert kit (kind of a pain to read)

to the best of my eyes in seeing between .1 to .25 silicate in my RO container. To solve this do I need to replace my filters? I’m getting a 0 TDS readout.
This could explain why these won’t go away because I’m always feeding the diatoms with the ATO...
@Randy Holmes-Farley thoughts? Or is this level too low for diatoms to feed.

 

[Cwentz758]

Any thoughts about the silicates in RODI container?

 

[Cwentz758]

Got the P03 back to .05 all other parameters in check. Still wondering on the .1 - .25 silicate reading in RODI tank