Diatoms - a few observations

[joannde]

I honestly think that diatoms are a test of committment to aquarium keeping - if we can make it through this ugly stage we can probably make it through anything.

When I tore down the 10G betta tank to make the DP tank I hoped against hope that I wouldn't suffer a diatom outbreak as any free silicates in the glass would have been removed during its run as a betta tank and I was using Eco-Complete (non-glass) as a substrate. No such luck. As the movie said "therrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre ba-ack !"

I was also hoping that the Eclipse 3 systems (acrylic) would bypass this ugly phase. No such luck there either.

And now the second test of patience begins (the first being cycling the tank). LOL, oh well - the price we pay LOL

 

[WaterPond]

well, at least that stuff goes away, you havn't dealt with anything until you have had BBA!
Diatoms are pretty horrible though, who wants em! Good luck with the diatom fiight JoAnn

 

[coldmachineUK]

Having the same problem here! I have a diatom problem in my ps. saulosi cichlid setup, and am looking to now introduce a suitable bottom dwelling fish for the purposes of that and eating leftover food (so probably a BN plec).

I also noticed diatoms were much more prevelant in my brackish puffer tank than any FW tank I have, and the problem with this is that there's no cleanup crew possibility to fall back on! I actually found my diatoms gave way to green-blue algae (bright ugly stuff) and hair algae in my brackish setup.

It's definitely caused by a higher silicate to phosphate (Si) ratio though, nothing to do with overfeeding or anything of the sort which I've heard mentioned on other forums before... (!), so it's nothing you're doing wrong.

Has anyone got any experience/tips on how to avoid diatoms and/or how to reduce their lifespan from the usual 12 weeks or so?