# Brown Diatoms going crazy



## EricL (Jan 30, 2015)

I have read as much as I can find about diatoms, and I am pretty confident that that is what I have going crazy in my tank. It just passed its 3 week mark from being set up, and from what I understand this is a common issue in new tanks. 
Here are some specs (let me know if there's anything else you'd like to know):
size: 29 gallon
substrate: Flourite black sand over eco-complete
lighting: 2x 30" Finnex Planted +
CO2: Pressurized, running lime green on drop checker in 4dkh solution
Ferts: Full EI for 20-40 gallons
WC: 30-50% 3x weekly
Feeding: None. There are 3 oto's, 5 amanos, and about 10 blue velvet shrimp in it
Filtration: Fluval 306, added some phosguard to it 3 days ago (in hopes to remove silicates)

The stringy fuzz comes back to this level, covering all the HC and other plants within a day of removing as much as I can by hand before doing a water change. 

Parameters (as of yesterday): Ammonia & Nitrite @ 0ppm. Nitrate at 30ppm. Phosphate at 2ppm

here's a pic of the issue right now










Thanks for any input! It's really appreciated


----------



## latchdan (Sep 7, 2007)

manual removal, H202 kills it, although it will come back, at least in my experience.


----------



## EricL (Jan 30, 2015)

Thanks. One issue I have with hydrogen peroxide is that all the O2 bubbles it makes tend to lift the patches of HC up and out of the sand. They're just starting to get some decent roots.


----------



## FatherLandDescendant (Jul 24, 2014)

Knock as much loose as you can from everything and do a water change. Diatoms will go away eventually.


----------



## imcmaster (Jan 30, 2015)

It is curious that your phosphates are at 2ppm considering you are using phosguard (I would have expected it to be lower). Has the Phosguard helped at all with the diatoms? 
Nitrates seem high too. And you are changing water frequently, which should be diluting these numbers down.

How is the flow of water in the tank? Have you checked the canister for clogging? Seems that the phosguard should be having more of an effect, and may indicate your filter isn't working at maximum rates.

Does anyone think the dosing is too heavy at this point of a 3 week tank?


----------



## tamsin (Jan 12, 2011)

How long are your lights on for? Might be worth cutting the photo period or raising the lights.


----------



## EricL (Jan 30, 2015)

imcmaster said:


> It is curious that your phosphates are at 2ppm... Nitrates seem high too.


These tests were done right at the end of a full week of dosing, and are pretty much my targets. Ill run them again after a WC and post those for ya.
update: tested phosphate after 50% WC = 1 ppm. tested nitrate after 50% WC = 10ppm


imcmaster said:


> Has the Phosguard helped at all with the diatoms?


Hard to say, they're coming back strong within a day of removing as much as possible, and I just started using the phosguard


imcmaster said:


> How is the flow of water in the tank? Have you checked the canister for clogging?


Flow seems pretty significant to me, all of the plants swaying at least a little. The filter was brand new 3 weeks ago, and was cleaned out in tank water pretty thoroughly last weekend. I also have a 240gph power head in there which got the far side of the tank some nice flow.



tamsin said:


> How long are your lights on for? Might be worth cutting the photo period or raising the lights.


They used to be on for 8 hours, now just for 7 (as of yesterday)

Thanks for the ideas guys, I appreciate it!


----------



## Greenpepper (Dec 4, 2014)

getting better? I have the same problem too


----------



## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

Given the above facts of 30-50% water changes 3X per week, running Phosgard, no feeding, virtually no bio-load and you STILL have uncontrolled diatoms, you're only left with the rest of the inputs to the tank: Ferts, light and CO2 in some combination as causes.

For comparison: I have 29G's crammed with juvenile angelfish that get fed twice per day, and nothing more than a single sponge filter in the tank with lights on 8 hours per day. I do WC at 50% every other day and diatoms stop cold. If I miss a couple of water changes, I pay a diatom price.


----------



## latchdan (Sep 7, 2007)

> For comparison: I have 29G's crammed with juvenile angelfish that get fed twice per day, and nothing more than a single sponge filter in the tank with lights on 8 hours per day. I do WC at 50% every other day and diatoms stop cold. If I miss a couple of water changes, I pay a diatom price.


hmm if 50% water changes every other day seems a lot. I can't afford/have time to do that many water changes, I have to filter my water using RO and it takes about 6 hrs to get 20 gallons to do a WC. I've still never been able to get rid of this stuff either.

I'm going back to using seachem flourish instead of CSM+B never had this algae when I used a different micro fert...


----------



## EricL (Jan 30, 2015)

Greenpepper said:


> getting better? I have the same problem too


Hey, yea sorry for the month late reply. They completely went away after a few weeks of manual removal and crazy WC's. I actually slowed down on water changes and removing the stuff. I think they soaked up all the silicates, and as I removed them they had nothing to rebuild with. At the same time, the plants were taking off faster and faster. The cyanobacteria went away around the same time. Then I went through a period of lots of green hair algae, and still have had quite a bit recently. Now it's changing to the more branch-like algaes. The green stuff that sort of looks like filamentus, as well as a little bba here and there. All manageable and going in the right direction.


----------



## Greenpepper (Dec 4, 2014)

Great to hear that. Mine are getting better once I slow down on the feeding on my shrimps and my BKK help me clean those all up for me.... Lol.... Nice 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## latchdan (Sep 7, 2007)

I actually got rid of mine by just switching trace ferts, went from CSM+B to Seachem Flourish and they went away after a week. I was battling them for over a year and this simple switch fixed it.


----------



## Paul Naj (Jun 30, 2013)

I had this in one of my tanks 2 years ago. I believe it's called Melosira. For me the cause was fluctuating / insufficient CO2. The solution was manual removal, 2-3X per week 50% water changes, treating with Excel per bottle recommended dosage, and higher / stabile CO2. It disappeared in a about 2 weeks and never came back.


----------



## helgi125 (Jan 16, 2014)

Thank god for this thread giving me hope that I dont have to tear mine down, Woke up to this . 










Lets hope its just the uglies


----------



## alpha1172 (Sep 5, 2005)

i had this is my 7 gallon, nothing i did got ri of it, h202, excel, lowered light, increased flow, manual removal. Ended up having to resort to algaefix. which killed it over night and hasnt returned


----------



## Zoomy (Sep 13, 2014)

I'm battling it in my weekish old tank, too...not as bad as some of you are dealing with, but I had it in my 5g when I first set that up, too. What totally eliminated it in that case was phosphate-absorbing media. I've never checked our tap water, but I suspect it has some. I also wonder how much is leeching out of the MGOCPM under my Black Diamond cap. I have some pouches of phosphate-absorbing media that should be arriving tomorrow. When I tested a few days ago I was somewhere in the 2-5ppm range...ridiculous.


----------

