Second Diatom Bloom?

[ChiTownRomeo]

My tank has been setup for about a year and half. Used tropic eden live sand, i use rodi water, I havent had a diatom bloom until I added about 10 pounds of dry rock. I use 2 mp10s on my 55 gallon. Use Marineland reef capable led's with timers. I havent had a diatom bloom in about a year. Could that dry rock kick start a diatom bloom? Is it really a such thing as a Old sandbed syndrome? Should I take the old sandbed out and put a new one? I siphon the top layer of my sand and have been for a year and half. I'm lost cause I have no idea what started this bloom. No hair algea or nothing. Just diatoms.

 

[Sniperhank]

If there are silicates in the dry rock, then yes it can. I would be more inclined to think adding the rock disturbed the sandbed and released some silicates to get consumed.

In terms of old tank syndrome, you hear this come out from the mystery tank crashes when people aren't doing good maintenance on their systems...uneaten food and poop up against the rocks and through the sand. Proper water circulation, like you have, prevents this from building up so it can be removed by filtration.

 

[ChiTownRomeo]

If there are silicates in the dry rock, then yes it can. I would be more inclined to think adding the rock disturbed the sandbed and released some silicates to get consumed.

In terms of old tank syndrome, you hear this come out from the mystery tank crashes when people aren't doing good maintenance on their systems...uneaten food and poop up against the rocks and through the sand. Proper water circulation, like you have, prevents this from building up so it can be removed by filtration.

I siphon my sand once a week with every water change. Should I not be doing that?

 

[Sniperhank]

I wouldn't. I don't, ever, besides a cyano bloom I had where some went with the cyano...but that is unavoidable.

 

[Animal-Chin]

Sandbed vacuming will go down in history as one of the most debated topics in reef keeping, that and keeping tangs in "smaller" tanks.