Mom needs help

[Etunes]

My moms 46g bowfront has white sand and this brown stuff pops on it. It looks like diatoms and it comes up fast. I mean i stur the sand up and it is back within 2 to 3 hours. BTW the tank is atleast 2 years old so it is a mature set up. My suspicions is the lighting is old. Can anyone support this to ease my mom.

 

[HN1]

Is that substrate 2 years old as well?

 

[Etunes]

Is that substrate 2 years old as well?

Ya, but whats that got to do with diatoms on the sand?

I think it is the lighting but i need conformation to convince my mom. But i have been wrong before.

 

[neilanh]

Hmm, has she put anything new in the tank recently that could cause an excess of silicates?

 

[Etunes]

The only thing added to the tank was 2 guppies. All the plants you see even is from the tank before as all there was before was plants, couldnt see a thing.

 

[neilanh]

That's strange, diatoms usually only come around when high levels of silicate are in the system. If it is diatoms, changing the bulb won't help any. If it's something else, it could.. My wifes tank was suffering from BBA, changed the bulb and 72 hours later it was all gone.

 

[neilanh]

If the sand got stirred I guess it could have released some silicates maybe?

 

[Etunes]

If the sand got stirred I guess it could have released some silicates maybe?

That makes a little more since. So i will step up with some water changes to try to get it out and see i guess. Thanks as always neilanh.

 

[Zagz]

I had a mature tank that ended up with an excess of silicates and I got a diatom bloom. I did extra water changes for a few weeks and it got rid of it. It can occur with old tank sydrome as well.