Diatoms and Algae's.

[CCXGT]

So in my month old reef, Diatoms have finally decided to rear their ugly heads.

Should I bother taking any action against them?
Or just live with an ugly tank for a while?

Also, these weird red spikey things have come out of the rock.


Any idea what they might be?


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[CCXGT]

Seriously though... They've started to properly take off:






Might a few snails help the situation?


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[Animal-Chin]

I personally can't sit back and watch diatoms take over so I fight them when i set up a new tank. I like to turkey baster blast them off the rocks ect. right before a water change the suck as many out as possible. Then the rest in the water get filtered out. Eventually you won't have to do this as diatoms hit every tank then die off. You can just leave them and they'll go away but if you're ocd like me manual removal is the best. I don't know if any snails actually eat them as they are not actually algae.

 

[CCXGT]

I personally can't sit back and watch diatoms take over so I fight them when i set up a new tank. I like to turkey baster blast them off the rocks ect. right before a water change the suck as many out as possible. Then the rest in the water get filtered out. Eventually you won't have to do this as diatoms hit every tank then die off. You can just leave them and they'll go away but if you're ocd like me manual removal is the best. I don't know if any snails actually eat them as they are not actually algae.

I've read that Trochus and Astrea's both go after diatoms.. Not 100% on that though.

I'd rather not have them take over, I do have a toothbrush to attack them with but some of them are really stuck on there...


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[CCXGT]

So now the diatom bloom is in full effect should I be blowing it off the rocks and sand to speed up its reproduction?


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[Sniperhank]

That won't do anything. It is the consumption of silicates that will. Just let it do it's thing.


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[CCXGT]

That won't do anything. It is the consumption of silicates that will. Just let it do it's thing.


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Ugh... It's so fugly... ?


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[Sniperhank]

Just like bad prunes, this too will pass.