Diatoms at 8 months?

[Skidog]

My tank is 8 months mature and out of the blue I get a diatom outbreak on the sand. All water params are great. I removed a yellow filter sponge that I left in too long in my wet/dry and replaced it with a new one. I do RO/DI h2o changes weekly. Any thoughts? So far I've just rode it out. Almost like my tank did a little mini-cycle.

 

[Newfiereefer]

My tank is 8 months mature and out of the blue I get a diatom outbreak on the sand. All water params are great. I removed a yellow filter sponge that I left in too long in my wet/dry and replaced it with a new one. I do RO/DI h2o changes weekly. Any thoughts? So far I've just rode it out. Almost like my tank did a little mini-cycle.

I'm still new at the whole SW thing but I've done a lot of reading before I even started , and I have read that this can happen , have you added a significant amount of fish or live rock recently ? That could cause your tank to go though a cycling process, even after it is established.

 

[Gregcoyote]

My reef is almost 20 years old and I still get occasional small patches of diatoms and red algae. So does the real reef. In my case it is because I choose to have tons of coral and very fat fish. When I get sick of it, I polish the water with something like Polysorb and make sure my RO/DI filter is working. City water has selenium In it and my understanding is that can promote diatom growth.

One note, I have noticed that coral that is healthy rarely has any algae of any kind on it. But if polyps get sick they get covered fast.