New 55 gallon diatoms?

[Blakskall]

Set up a new 55 gallon with some liverock and sand from an old tank, i fully understand cycling and algae blooms, my old tank had a problem w cyano, does this look like diatoms or the beginning of cyano?

 

[Sniperhank]

Could be either, hard to tell. It could be diatoms due to stirring up the sand and putting it in the new tank. On the same note, if you haven't addressed the issue causing cyano that issue will return as well. Are you using ro/di? How many fish are in your 55? How much are you feeding? What kind of filtration do you run?

 

[Blakskall]

Yes im using rodi water with 0-2 tds, i hav four fish right now, for filtration im using a marineland penguin filter rated for 60 gallons, with carbon filter pads and a bag of GFO in the back. My skimmer is a HOB aqua c remora with a magdrive 3, rated for about 150 gallons i think (i know a little bit of overkill but im adding a sump so the volume will go up) im running a vortech mp10 and a maxi jet 400 for extra flow, i feed every three days

 

[Sniperhank]

Hm, well that is a good question on why you had cyano then. It is either the tds going up or overfeeding when you do feed. Feed in small amounts. What are you feeding?

 

[Blakskall]

Once a day, every three days, about a 1/4 cube of mysis shrimp and a 1/8 cube of emerald entree

 

[Sniperhank]

Do you rinse the food? If not, that might be your nutrient sink.

 

[Blakskall]

I get a little tank water, thaw it, and pour into my small net so it drains, n then dump it into the tank

 

[Sniperhank]

Well...besides the tds readings I'm stumped... with the care you are showing I won't even ask about water changes being weekly, its obviously a given. Has to be the tds.

 

[Blakskall]

I think im going to get a salifert silicate test kit to see if it is diatoms.. Narrow down the options, i do have rather high nitrates right now.. I believe my tank is cycled, i just didnt want to do a pwc in case it was diatoms to let them die off. But if the silicate is zero, ill consider replacing my filters in my rodi unit

 

[tsharkey]

In this situation you have several options. But I would suggest (not that i'm an algae expert) a diatom filter. It will filter out the majority if not all on the diatoms in your aquarium. On top of that it will take down on all of your algae blooms. It will also clarify your water to crystal clear. It will filter 0.5 microns to 1 millionth of a micron.

Hope you figure it out!

T.S.

 

[Schism]

I think im going to get a salifert silicate test kit to see if it is diatoms.. Narrow down the options, i do have rather high nitrates right now.. I believe my tank is cycled, i just didnt want to do a pwc in case it was diatoms to let them die off. But if the silicate is zero, ill consider replacing my filters in my rodi unit

I wouldnt worry about spending the money on the test kit. Im pretty sure its diatoms, if it were cyano you would know it by now and your would see a slimy stringiness to it. Unbound silicate is all that kit will test for. It will not test the silicate in the sand where the diatoms are feeding off it.

If your concerned about your RO/DI filters then o suggest you use the money on a TDS meter instead of the test kit. If you have anything but ZERO TDS then you need a filter(s) change.

If you have Zero TDS the your water is silicate free along with everything else.