Gawd dang diatoms

[Eskew77]

I’ve been battling diatoms for what seems like forecer. But in reality, maybe 3 months.
My phosphates have held steady at .03 to .06 for that time. And nitrates have been 5 - 7. Everything in the tank is growing and looks very healthy. It’s just the unsightly brown diatoms and small tufts of GHA here and there.
My tank is an IM Nuvo 30l
Currently I am running a skimmer 24 hrs. I’m running a UV sterilizer 24 hrs. I’m dosing ESV 2 part and TM K and A. And I’m dosing ocean magic. There is filter floss, maxpect spheres and a small bag of ROX in the caddy.
Water flow is med to heavy through out the tank with two mp10 at either end on reef mode at 40 percent and the dc pump at 19 538 gph.

I’ve narrowed it down to 3 things. The rock, sand or RO water. I recently replaced the DI resin but I’m still not convinced it’s not the water.
If I was to bag up some gfo and place it in my ATO res would it absorb silicates? I’d like to rule out the water before messing with rock and sand.

 

[Eskew77]

Here’s a video I just took of how the tank looks just now.

 

[Subsea]

I’ve been battling diatoms for what seems like forecer. But in reality, maybe 3 months.
My phosphates have held steady at .03 to .06 for that time. And nitrates have been 5 - 7. Everything in the tank is growing and looks very healthy. It’s just the unsightly brown diatoms and small tufts of GHA here and there.
My tank is an IM Nuvo 30l
Currently I am running a skimmer 24 hrs. I’m running a UV sterilizer 24 hrs. I’m dosing ESV 2 part and TM K and A. And I’m dosing ocean magic. There is filter floss, maxpect spheres and a small bag of ROX in the caddy.
Water flow is med to heavy through out the tank with two mp10 at either end on reef mode at 40 percent and the dc pump at 19 538 gph.

I’ve narrowed it down to 3 things. The rock, sand or RO water. I recently replaced the DI resin but I’m still not convinced it’s not the water.
If I was to bag up some gfo and place it in my ATO res would it absorb silicates? I’d like to rule out the water before messing with rock and sand.

Your tank looks great. I don’t see the uglies you mention. Silicates fuel diatoms and I dose silicates for ornamental sponges in my systems and I use janitors to consume diatoms, which are a type of phytoplankton.

I don’t think your RODI will remove silicates. First you should test for silicates

PS: Depends on the media in your DI filter. The same goes for GFO.

 

[Eskew77]

Your tank looks great. I don’t see the uglies you mention. Silicates fuel diatoms and I dose silicates for ornamental sponges in my systems and I use janitors to consume diatoms, which are a type of phytoplankton.

I don’t think your RODI will remove silicates. First you should test for silicates

I’ve been contemplating sending out a test. I might just get the one that includes the RODI test.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I don’t see diatoms. Can you elaborate or point them out in a picture?

 

[Eskew77]

The lights are ramping down so it’s excessively blue.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

It’s pretty blue but looks to me like normal colouring of sand due to biofilm, micro algae and detritus. It doesn’t look like diatoms, diatoms is like a brown powder with same consistency all over, this has different consistency in different place. Just my 2 cents

 

[Eskew77]

Your tank looks great. I don’t see the uglies you mention. Silicates fuel diatoms and I dose silicates for ornamental sponges in my systems and I use janitors to consume diatoms, which are a type of phytoplankton.

I don’t think your RODI will remove silicates. First you should test for silicates

PS: Depends on the media in your DI filter. The same goes for GFO.

I ordered the silica blaster cartridge for my unit.

 

[Eskew77]

It’s pretty blue but looks to me like normal colouring of sand due to biofilm, micro algae and detritus. It doesn’t look like diatoms, diatoms is like a brown powder with same consistency all over, this has different consistency in different place. Just my 2 cents

It’s odd though. I just did a water change yesterday and stirred and vacummed the heavy spots. This showed up over night.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

It’s odd though. I just did a water change yesterday and stirred and vacummed the heavy spots. This showed up over night.

I would suggest to post more clear focused pics in white light tomorrow for folks to identify. Just my suggestion. Good luck

 

[Eskew77]

A couple pictures before the lights start coming on. I’ll post more this afternoon when lights reach peak.

 

[Eskew77]

Lights at peak

 

[not_eman209]

Lights at peak

Did you figure it out?

 

[Troylee]

Looks like Dino’s not diatoms… get a uv light

 

[Eskew77]

Did you figure it out?

I did! Turns out it was string cyano. I made 2 investments, a microscope and a par meter. Once identified I started chemiclean and I’m 24 hours into the 48 hr treatment. The tank already looks 85 percent better.