Diatoms.....Again?

[meloyelo]

About 2 months ago, I had an outbreak of what I assumed was Diatoms. It hung around for maybe a month. I was continually cleaning off the glass and plant leaves to try to keep it at bay until it cleared up, which it finally pretty much did. I've noticed in the past couple of days that it appears to be coming back again. It's showing up on the glass again and the plant leaves are getting the brown coating like before. Strange thing is that I've changed nothing about the tank. Could this be a brown algae that I've been dealing with instead of diatoms?

Thanks!

 

[aqua_chem]

One of several things may be happening. One, your initial diatom bloom is just continuing. Two, yo disturbed your substrate somehow and turned over some silicate-leeching substrate. Three, you're getting silicates in you tap water. In any case, you usually best off just manually removing the stuff and waiting it out.

 

[meloyelo]

Actually I guess it could be all three combined. The first outbreak was pretty much gone, but not completely. Then, I recently added some more live plants, so I did stir up the sand when I was planting the roots. Also, I have well water so I assume it could be contributing some silicates and keeping it going. If that's the case, I may have a continuous battle with diatoms.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Daxhua]

I still get an accasional outbreak of diatoms in my tank even though its been running for more than four years but it only seems to happen when maintenance works on my apartment complex's plumbing. It isn't a problem for me since my single oto can eat a 54gal tank full of diatoms in three days I know I've seen him do it.

 

[meloyelo]

LOL, that must be one fat little Oto.