Hi Everyone,
My 165g is a little over a year old and I've been battling what I believe to be diatoms since the beginning. While they tend to ebb and flow and I have experienced a massive bloom and die-off, the dang things always come back and seem to have stabilized now, but even after 0 water changes for months they still won't go away.
I have about 26 fish in the tank of various types, all seem to be getting along and healthy.
My clean up crew consists mostly of Astria and Trochus snails, but there are other crustaceans in there as well.
The coralline algae is growing in at what I think is a decent pace. It began on the powerheads and now every rock has a little on it somewhere. Other spots are growing quite well.
I haven't tested for silicates, but like I said, even after probably 4 months of no water changes, the diatoms just won't go away.
The only other thing I can imagine that might be bringing silica into the tank is changing the filter socks. I've been washing them in the clothes washer with a tiny splash of bleach.
I even tried 4 DI cannisters and mixed up about 160 gallons of fresh saltwater. I did 4, 40g water changes over the course of 4 weeks and 2 weeks later the diatoms are still going.
About 8 months ago my nutrients were super low and I experienced both Dino's and Cyano. After a round of chemi-clean and dosing microbacter clean and microbacter 7 for a few week those went away and I don't think they ever came back... The diatoms did though.
I feed 4 cubes of frozen food every morning and night. Nitrate and phosphate levels are in the pics. When the dinos and cyano were in bloom I had 0 nitrate, but my phosphate was around 0.2ppm.
Any ideas?
My 165g is a little over a year old and I've been battling what I believe to be diatoms since the beginning. While they tend to ebb and flow and I have experienced a massive bloom and die-off, the dang things always come back and seem to have stabilized now, but even after 0 water changes for months they still won't go away.
I have about 26 fish in the tank of various types, all seem to be getting along and healthy.
My clean up crew consists mostly of Astria and Trochus snails, but there are other crustaceans in there as well.
The coralline algae is growing in at what I think is a decent pace. It began on the powerheads and now every rock has a little on it somewhere. Other spots are growing quite well.
I haven't tested for silicates, but like I said, even after probably 4 months of no water changes, the diatoms just won't go away.
The only other thing I can imagine that might be bringing silica into the tank is changing the filter socks. I've been washing them in the clothes washer with a tiny splash of bleach.
I even tried 4 DI cannisters and mixed up about 160 gallons of fresh saltwater. I did 4, 40g water changes over the course of 4 weeks and 2 weeks later the diatoms are still going.
About 8 months ago my nutrients were super low and I experienced both Dino's and Cyano. After a round of chemi-clean and dosing microbacter clean and microbacter 7 for a few week those went away and I don't think they ever came back... The diatoms did though.
I feed 4 cubes of frozen food every morning and night. Nitrate and phosphate levels are in the pics. When the dinos and cyano were in bloom I had 0 nitrate, but my phosphate was around 0.2ppm.
Any ideas?