I have 5 tanks. All are doing well and the fish are happy. The most recent one I set up, a 20g for my green spotted puffer, has an outbreak of diatoms. It has been running for 2 weeks. I used a seeded filter from my established 29g community tank. It has a mainland 200 penguin filter on it. Very, very low levels of marine salt has been introduced. My water parameters are ammo .25, nitrite 0, nitrate 30, ph 8.2. The ammo is normal reading for all my tanks and my scheduled weekly 50% wc is tonight, so the nitrate will be lowered with that.
Anyway, in my reading I have found that diatoms are not harmful for my puffer. Later tonight with the wc I am going to take all the deco out and scrub it then rearrange it. I am wondering if there is anything else I can do. The sand in my tank is a silica sand, and I've read that increases diatoms. Should I change that? I've also read that some fish and/or snails can help. However, the green spot will most likely not tolerate any tank mates, but I am open to suggestions. Is there any thing I can do to speed this process up, or is my best option to wait it out?
Thanks for any advice!
Smomus,
Hello, my friend; I will attempt to give you as much advice and insight as I can because you were there to walk me through much of my 60 gallon crash disaster -- I have somewhat of a distinct, extensive background with this brown diatom algae, as before my 60 gallon goldfish tank was wiped out by the bacterial infection you know about, I was NEVER able to get rid of the diatoms that plagued that tank, no matter what I did or tried...and believe me, we tried everything...this was after two and a half years of dealing with them. They were all over EVERYTHING -- my "pirate shipwreck" ornament and its sails (completely devoured those), the gravel, the glass, the plants, the other decor, the filter intake tubes...they did not seem to affect the fantail goldfish in any way, but let me share some things I may have learned and what steps we took to try and combat these ugly things (I know it's frustrating and horrible to look at -- BELIEVE me)...
We were first advised that it may have been our tap water causing the diatoms, so we switched to top offs and water changes with pristine bottled purified water. No change. Then, I was advised to try a filter media like Seachem's PhosGuard to remove the phosphates in the water that the diatoms may be feeding on; we tried MANY months (maybe a year) of this treatment and it didn't make a difference. I increased water changes. Didn't make a difference. Then, I was advised it could have been decor or gravel that was causing them -- I thought that may be it, because the diatom colonies appeared to form and begin under the gravel bed, but it wasn't until my tank crashed and I lost my goldies to a bacterial infection causing me to clean the entire tank out that I discovered what may have been causing these things, or at least keeping them alive...
When we scooped out the old gravel, the bottom of our tank was covered in a disgusting, thick brown muck which turned the remaining inches of water almost black -- this was a buildup of food and decaying waste material which we didn't gravel vac up routinely. My brilliant theory? The diatoms had nothing to starve them off with all this crap at the bottom of the tank! The bacteria, filth, grime, muck....it all must have been feeding these things, not allowing them to die...
My suggestion? Do more gravel vacuuming and water cleaning! Just my two cents about what may be causing them...
