Diatoms!

[markodeniro]

Hi all

So had a diatom bloom about 2 months into the cycle at the start of the year. Thought I'd top some sand up and replaced some old powdery stuff with new aragonite 2 weeks ago and boom huge diatom bloom again. I rinsed the dry sand before adding it.... Will rowaphos help remove it? I'll get a silicate test tomorrow. Any advise to get rid of the brown stringy stuff I'm all ears.


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[markodeniro]

Adding to that the bloom died off after about a month last time but damaged by Xenia in the process.


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[agfish12]

Do you use chaeto or a macro alage to export nutrients? Also new Sand will add more nutrients for the diatoms to feed off of even if you washed it well


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[markodeniro]

I have cheato, and keep blowing it off the corals and rocks fishing out the big stringy bits


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[agfish12]

I would just keep at it then. My diatoms lasted for awhile then the cyano took over and that went away when I got rid of my cheap carbon and siphoned out all the cyano I could


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[Sniperhank]

Diatoms are all silicate based. They are there from the new sand. They will burn out once the silicates are gone. Nothing you do will change that and testing for it is a waste of time and money. It is all patience.


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[markodeniro]

Doesn't rowaphos remove silicates though? I'm guessing there isn't a product to break it down to make it easier to skim out? The stringy bits are a nightmare to get off corals


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[Marty.h]

You say stringy you sure it's not dinoflagellate if it has an air bubble at the top of the string

 

[Gregcoyote]

Purigen will help remove silicates from the water.


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[markodeniro]

Yeah its definitely diatoms, brown on the sand and once it's ready it breaks off in long stringy bits. I'll upload a pic later


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[Reefing Madness]

Sounds more like Dinoflagellates to me. Diatoms don't tend to grow, get bubbly and break off.

 

[Marty.h]

I did mention dinoflagellate it's a pain to get rid of I had it and beat it but not without loosing a few corals. If yours looks like this it's dino

 

[markodeniro]

Ah ok sorry I was quite certain it was diatoms but looking at your pic it looks like dinos! What are they and how do I get rid? At night they fade away and come out during light hours so I guess that's a dinosaur sign?! Nightmare! How do I get rid of them? Water changes and siphoning I guess?


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[Marty.h]

Get some Algae X now called Dino x put tank into a 3 day black out and follow the instructions on the bottle it's evil stuff that dinoflagellates

 

[markodeniro]

I had this about 6 months ago like I say but it died off after 6 weeks or so. Is that the Red Sea algae x?


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[Marty.h]

I tried the natural route of trying to let it burn out lost a 21 head duncan and the one pictured and a torch even sucking the stuff off them it was litually strangling the corals

I used algae x and it slaughtered it the only down side is if you have shrimps it is likely to kill them as it did mine so I would say remove any shrimp if you have them my crabs, anenomie and fish remained unharmed

 

[markodeniro]

It did take all of my Xenia heads with it I suppose I was hoping it was diatoms ? how long did it take to get rid of it using algae x?


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[Marty.h]

A whole month including no water changes forgot to say it also tangled all my exina and killed it

 

[markodeniro]

Ok so just carried out a 2 day blackout and this morning the tank was spotless. Unfortunately the dinos made it to the sump where I forgot to turn the light off. So by the end of today the tank was 75% covered again. Any ideas how to get rid of this stuff? It's horrible strangling everything.


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[Marty.h]

Algae x or dino x as it's known now will slaughter it as it did mine