What would happen if..........

[JoeA]

Ok i'm fighting Diatom on the sand bed....and for now that is the only place it is. I recently started doing top offs and water changes with my house RO drinking water filter {slow}.

I just siphoned off the brown sand....will that help or am I wasting my time? If I rinse the brown sand off can I re-use it or is it contaminated with diatoms

 

[steve-s]

Algae removal will help reduce the root cause. As you remove the algae, you remove the fuel source as well but an easier way would be to eliminate the cause itself. Once accomplished the diatoms will die without addition fuss from you. An RO unit is definately a plus but one drawback is most water sources will still contain silicates and phosphates that only a DI resin can remove/lower enough to not fuel these algaes in the first place. Adding the additional stage to your RO set up would be the best solution. What's the TDS of your water before and after?

Cheers
Steve

 

[seaham358]

How old is the tank? If new diatom is a natural part of a new tank and will pass over time. If its a tank that is a few months old and your still getting it I would look at over feeding and your water as the source of the problem.

 

[JoeA]

tanks about 6-7 weks old

 

[steve-s]

Then I'd let it burn itself out. As long as silicates are not being introduced via the water source, the algae will eventually crash on it's own.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Phyl]

How long have you been fighting it? Mine lasted around a week and then just sort of passed on its own. Sure is hard to wait it out while the tank that you were so proud of the week before looks like umm... YUCK! LOL! I ended up sucking some if it out during a water change. I rinsed the sand off and put it back. It didn't come back. Also picked up some emerald crabs, some snails and they've done a wonderful job cleaning the gunk off of the rocks and the glass. Hang in there, it is normal and it goes away.