Diatoms

[OscarFan76]

My 40g breeder was looking great. It has been up about 6 weeks but I wasn't running the lights. I picked up my first coral over the weekend (mushroom) and started running the lights. That brought a huge diatom outbreak. Any idea how long this typically lasts? How long should I run my lights? I have a set of t5s with a 250w metal halide.

I picked up ClearFX Pro hoping to reduce the phosphate but no luck yet on the diatoms. Nitrates are fairly low but not 0 (like 10).

Thanks.

 

[Saratj1]

Diatoms aren't really bad just ugly, its about silica in your new substrate. They will go away once they eat the silica. It may take a week or so. Don't worry about them, just watch them and make sure it doesnt turn into some type of algae outbreak, because when you start adding high lighting thats when the algae issues start. The diatoms shouldn't grow on your coral, so your mushrooms should be fine.

 

[OscarFan76]

Thanks for the info.