Can't get rid of diatoms!

[Sssea]

My 29 gal has had diatoms for months and they've recently begun to get much worse. I've heard that they'll go away on their own, I've tried leaving the lights off, I'm at my wit's end!!! I'm already stocked with 2 fancy goldies, so Otos are out of the question and I can't find nertite snails anywhere. I currently just use my hand to wipe them off the glass, but they've spread to all my decor and gravel. I'm on a seriously tight budget being a poor college student, so any solution has to be painfully cheap or I miss out on dinner!

Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

 

[jcolon]

Chances are you may never get rid of them ... diatoms rely on silica in the water to produce the shell which is what you see as Brown Algae. I'm betting you use tap for your PWC's and chances are your tap has a high silica content ... probably groundwater?

You could try switching to RO/DI ... but that may end up hurting your stock by removing nutrients and buffers.

 

[aqua_chem]

Diatoms can also be a symptom of over feeding as well. You can try dramatically cutting back feeding for a while and see if that helps.

How much are you feeding now?

 

[Bubble_B0y]

bristlenose pleco will readily eat diatoms!
You can squeeze 1 bristlenose into your 29gallon

 

[Homer8]

my brackish 29 gal tank was teaming with diatoms and got some amano shrimp and 2 nerites and now the tank is free of diatoms.