Diatoms

[jlehring]

I'm thinking I have some diatoms on my sand. Outside of just picking up some shells and cleaning a little is the brownish red stuff diatoms? (Yeah I know I need to clean the glass.).

Also should my conch's shells be so dark and nasty looking?

I have:
4 conch
About 15-20 hermit crabs
5 sand digging snails
10 of the nassaurus snails
2 emerald crabs
2 clown
3 damsel
2 firefly gobi's

Water check showed salinity was at 1.0245, any suggestions? All other water parameters have been good since tank was set up in late November.

Thanks friends! I appreciate the advice and direction!!!

 

[SaltwaterNuB]

Need more info about your tank... How long has it been set up, and so on...

 

[chiclidlover81]

diatoms feed off silicates in your sand do you use ro/di or tap water?

 

[bonniewoodruff]

From what I understand once the diatoms feed off all of the silicate they will go away.

 

[54seaweed]

how many power heads you have in your 55
try redirecting them for more circulation it will help knock them down a bit
also more frequent water changes will help
yes it looks nasty but it's a natural faze in a new tank

 

[AquaRick]

Doesn't look like diatoms to me. Too dark. Looks like the beginning of cyano or a different algae.

 

[chiclidlover81]

Doesn't look like diatoms to me. Too dark. Looks like the beginning of cyano or a different algae.

+1 i agree 100%

 

[baron1282]

Not to Hijack a thread (Don't want to start a new one, being this has the title of the question I need answered), but I have a problem with what I think are diatoms as well. I had the same thing on my glass. The weird part is that when you look right at it, you can't see it. I found it by looking at the side view of my tank and seen it on the front of my glass. How long does it take for a Diatom bloom to die off? I can't put a cleaning crew in because I got a puffer, Hawkfish, and a Six Line wrasse. So they will eat everything. I do have 5 hermit craps and one peppermint shrimp that are being left alone. They were in the tank before the fish!

I cleaned it of course and got all of it off my glass. It's on my rocks, mostly on the very top rocks that is closest to the light. My lights are programed to come on at 11am and turn off at 9pm. Is this too long being I am trying to kill the diatom bloom? If I left the lights off for all day and turned them on just for an hour or two for feeding, would that hurt my fish in anyway? Just until the Diatoms are gone.

How long does it normally take for my rocks to get the nice looking colors? I got a little bit of green and pink coming in, but it's a small little dot that is barely viable, but it's a start right? My tank has been up for three months, water conditions are fine with everything at 0 and PH at 8.2. I am also waiting for my new heater being my Aqueon keeps it at 80 degrees even if I turn it down to 76 where I want it. :-/

 

[jlehring]

I have 2 power heads in my 55 Gallon. I changed their location last week about 3-4 inches lower than where they were-still both pointed towards middle of tank.

Since I am a noob, I buy my water from a LFS but do about 5 gallon water changes weekly. When it does run low I use distilled water from the grocery store to refill.

Maybe I should try 10 Gallon water changes for a few weeks?