pesky diatoms

[greatgman]

i have had those diatoms for over 3 weeks
and it still is there
tank has been up for 2 months (1 month with fish)
lighting is :
atnic on for 12 hrs
10k for 9-10 hrs
water parameters
salinity 1.023
temp 80
ph 8.3
amm 0.0
trite .15 (almost gone)
trate 20-40
in my hob filters i'm using just filter pads for mech filtration (no carbon)
should i use carbon?
feeding:
flakes in morn (9 am)
frozen food at night (5pm)
feeding 1/2 to a full cube of spiritulina brine shrimp,daphnia,and mysis
(not at of them at the same time) selected at the time
any advice?

 

[quarryshark]

Check you PO4, that may be part of the culprit. Also do a few water changes with Ro water. Are you using tap water? The water changes will get that trite level down too, thats a must.
Try and siphon as much of it out as you can, and skim like crazy.
Also try and drain as much of the packing juice from the frozen as you can before feeding. That juice will raise your PO4 like crazy.
In time if you are doing the above and keep your PO4 down, you will be golden.

 

[Phyl]

Sounds like you're feeding that one fish more than I feed my entire tank. You may want to rethink your feeding strategy. I feed 1/2 cube for the fish and some pellet for the crabs and shrimp every other day. I put nori in the tank on the off days for the tang (but only as much as he'd eat in a day or less).

Have you done a good water change (20%) yet? You may want to do that to help bring your trAtes down some. That should help. What kind of water are you using? The experts say that RO/DI is best (but I don't have a problem using tap in mine yet. I'm waiting on our RO/DI unit to show up though so we'll be going RO/DI as soon as we can. YMMV).

Those diatoms are the worst. I wanted to put a blanket over the tank while that mess was going on! Good luck! Once mine went away it hasn't come back, so there's a silver lining out there somewhere!

 

[steve-s]

Diatoms (brown algaes) are primarily caused from silicates. They do not usually come in from food sources but water. If you are using tap or RO only, it would be the culprit.

Cheers
Steve

 

[cmor1701d]

Guess it's time to change the DI cartridge then.

 

[greatgman]

true true moneys tight now so i'm using tap
any idea on the po4 kits (good brand)
i'm using aquarium pharicuticals ammonia , nitrite ,nitrate

 

[quarryshark]

Aquarium pharicuticals are just fine.
You may be able to get RO water from your LFS. Many sell it pretty cheap. Start doing water changes with RO water and you will see a difference in no time.

 

[greatgman]

phyl
my tank inhabitants are
1 blue hippo tang
1 royal gramma
1 scooter blennie
1 saddleback clownfish
4 blue/green chromis
15 blue legg hermits
1 cleaner shrimp

the full cube i give them is eaten up so quickly im suprised that the scooter blennie actually gets to eat
let alone the shrimp and hermits

in about 2 weeks i will get morehermits and a couple more shrimp

 

[Phyl]

LOL. I "read" a month with 1 fish (instead of 1 month with fish). My brain went dyslexic on me! Man, I hate when that happens. I see you have a 90. We setup our 120 at the end of October (looks to be about the same timeframe as you?). Our diatoms lasted about a week an happened around the 2w mark, but then again our cycle finished really fast. Do you have any LR? I think that must have really helped us. We never really had much of a nitritre spike and trAtes never got over 20.

We had a massive feeding accident at Christmas and due to many huge water changes we've been using tap ever since, luckily it hasn't affected our tank at all yet. The RO/DI came in last night (thank you filterdirect on ebay) and my husband has it almost setup. He needed one more thing (isn't that always the way?!). I think we have similar tank contents, but my fish must not be as big as yours. Usually towards the end of 1/2 a cube the crabs & shrimp are able to get their share and that is with an every other day schedule. Sometimes they don't even finish 1/2.

 

[greatgman]

well phyl i am adjusting my feeding now
for today i wont feed them at all
i got a brine shrimp net
gponna screen and rinse the food b4 i add it to the cup of tank water i take out
(feed with a turkey baster)

i will feed them every other day while giving my tang nori on the off days

 

[Phyl]

You'll have to let me know how the fish do on their reduced calorie diet (and if they make you feed them more ). I can always tell if my tang gets hungry (his belly sucks in a little). I've got some fresh spinach that I put into the freezer (to break down the cell structure) that I'm going to put on the clip tonight (I fed the gang well last night). It will be his first taste of spinach. I hope he likes it!

 

[greatgman]

my tang took a while to eat thew spinach(2 days)
but now she tears it up like the nori
feed her spinach 2 times a week(just 1 leaf)
nori 2 times a week and purple seaweed(sea veggies) once a week now
tyring to get her to eat broccolli
will try other veggies (celery leaves,cucumbers,kale,romaine,greenleaf lettuce)

 

[steve-s]

will try other veggies (celery leaves,cucumbers,kale,romaine,greenleaf lettuce)

Try to stick with dark green leafy veggies for the most part. They will have the highest nutritional values. Lettuce, celery and cucumber won't offer much.

Cheers
Steve