Ugly Brown Diatoms????

[MalawiMadness]

My 75 [acronym:0738ec1c72="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:0738ec1c72] fw mbuna tank has been in operation for a little over two months.
I noticed over the last couple of weeks that brown diatoms started showing on rocks in small dime size patches. Now this ugly brown stuff has invaded everything including plastic plants, gravel, and tank class. I do weekly 10-15% water changes/gravel cleanings. Water perimeters are stable: ammonia is 0ppm, nitrites 0ppm, nitrates .20, [acronym:0738ec1c72="power head or Measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions, depending on context"]ph[/acronym:0738ec1c72] 8.2. I did some research and found that its not uncommon for a new tank to develop brown diatoms. My concerns are this nasty funk is invading at a rapid pace. I'm on a mission to starve this stuff into oblivion and promote green algae for my grazing herbivores. Lighting in my tank is limited to 6-9 hours well under suggested 10-12 hours per day. Would a canister filter loaded with phosban kill this stuff? My research indicated that phosphates and silicates and high nitrate levels are prime inhibitors of brown diatoms. I run dual Penquin 400,280 power filters. I limit feeding to once a day using spirulina flakes. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Jchillin]

Actually, developing the diatoms is a good sign. It confirms that your tank is cycled. Now, to get rid of it:

Your lighting regimen needs to be consistent. 6 hours is good. Try not to exceed that.
The feedings are perfect.
I have no experience with Phosban or any other additive that will remove diatoms.

I'm not sure of the compatibility issues with Mbunas and cats. Cats, especially oto's are great at munching on all the diatoms.

Hopefully, someone will chime in on that aspect.

[Meredith]

I wish I could help you out. I have diatoms but my oto and my pleco take care of it right away, so I haven't had to worry about it too much. I would say get yourself a couple of otos.

[MalawiMadness]

I'm not sure if a peaceful cat can endure the harrassment. My mbuna fishy's are aggressive, nasty creatures where warfare is the norm with cease fires only occuring during feeding. A hungry mbuna is a not so happy fish as I limit small feedings to once a day preferring cleaner living conditions to full belly's degrading my tank. I have 14 fish in my tank and would rather not add to my already existing heavy loaded tank. Thank you for the advise and if anyone out there on this forum has experience with erraticating drown diatoms please feel free to private message me or post on this thread.

Thanks

[FishLover14]

I have and am wrestling right now with brown diatoms, i use a Mag-Float every day and do not run the light, i wont becasue of the fish i nthe tank but, you could try a bushynose pleco they love diatoms eat them right up.

[acronym:390e92432b="Just My Humble Opinion"]JMHO[/acronym:390e92432b]

[acronym:390e92432b="Hope this helps (or) Happy to help"]HTH[/acronym:390e92432b]

[FancyGuppyGuy]

Striped rubbernose ( bulldog ) pleco does wonders. heres a picture of some rocks and then 4 days later after this baby rubbernose got to work even the glass is clean

[jsoong]

From my reading - diatoms prefers low light, and is out competed by green algae & higher plants at higher light levels.

One way to control diatoms is a total blackout for 3 day or so - they can't survive without any light - but will just come back when you turn the light back on. The other way is to increase the light to encourage green plants or algae to out-compete the diatoms.