Do diatom blooms ever go away?

[MattP725]

My tank has been up and running for approx 2 mnths. I started out with tap conditioned water, then distilled, and now RO/DI (from aquasafecanada)... About a month or less ago I got a really really bad brown diatom outbreak.... it covered my LR, my PH's, all sides of the glass, and the substrate (which is 85% sand and 15% cc until I can get the rest of the coral out). I vacced, scraped, and did my normal water change thing... The tank looked crystal clear... I must add that my only cleaners are a hermit, two turbo snails, and a few emerald/porcelean crabs which I doubt do much because they never come out. Right now my tank is looking so so... def not as bad as before but the sand is changing color again and there are a few spots on the glass... I cleaned it less than a week ago prob. Now my tank isn't completely RO/DI yet because I haven't done more than 4 water changes since I got the unit. Will the diatom ever die off? How much more silica can be in this water? Do people with established tanks still deal with this? I did notice that the addition of the PC lighting increased the growth a bit but I cut back on lighting time because of this and the fact that it was stressing my trigger out... poor guy was used to 2x15w 10,000ks and got bombarded with 4x65w atnics and 10000ks... Regardless do I have to deal with this long term or is the end near...

 

[phases99]

Diatoms should not last longer than a month or so in a new tank. Most get eaten by the cleanup crew or get overgrown by the green algae's. Because you started with tap water it may take a little longer. Add a few more Astrea snails, you will be needing them anyway.

 

[MattP725]

Ya my LFS had some huge snails... I almost don't think they were snails... they weren't labeled but they were atleast the size of a quater in diameter... maybe some kind of clam.

 

[Biggen]

Unfortunately, that tap water your initially used fueled all that diatom growth, as you well know. However, it will abide as soon as that silica is eaten up by those pesky diatoms. Don't worry, it will clear, especially since you are using RO/DI water.

Established tanks that use RO/DI should never have a diatom bloom. We all still get diatoms though. I wipe the inside of my tank down every 2 days to get rid of the light brown film that develops.

One nice thing about diatoms is that it is free phytoplankton. My T. Maxima clam loves it when I wipe down the glass often. Great natural food for your filter feeders that you don't even have to think about.

 

[MattP725]

True true...

 

[alarmguy66]

My Diatoms lasted a few months, then the red cyano came for a couple, now Im in geen algea bloom season...just waiting to see what comes after that....

 

[RocketSeason]

My Diatom is going away after about a month and a half. I started the tank cycle with tap water and that got it going.

My hermits are keeping it under control now.