Diatom issue again

[Breakthecycle2]

Alright I am getting diatoms ( i think again). Not there in the morning, but afternoon/evening I see them.

My question is, my tank has cycled already. I have redone the rock work and sifted the sand over the last 10 days or less. I've added two fish. I also had to add water which was distilled/spring water. I did a 20% water change two days ago, hoping it will lower any silicates possibly in the water with R/O from my fish store, but since they seem to be coming back more.

 

[bavass]

If you want pure water buy an RO/DI unit and only use water with 0 TDS. You can only go by the word of the store as to when they changed there filters and membrane last. So you really don't know what you are getting. RO will only remove about 96% of the junk in water. So if the TDS going into an RO at say 300 you will have a TDS about 12. Some tap water is only 80 some is as high as 800. You want zero. If you run GFO in a reactor it will also remove silicates i believe. But, its going to be hard to get rid of them if you are adding them each water change. Step 1 is buy an RO/DI unit

 

[TheTodd]

If you wanted to check TDS, you can buy little handheld ones on eBay for under $15. I got one a couple months back just to check the water I buy. I plan to eventually get a RODI unit, but for now, I buy from the Glacier machine. It's usually around .003 which for my FOWLR is acceptable to me.

Diatoms will disappear eventually.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

Thanks guys