# Diatom Madness!



## Planted_Edge (Apr 29, 2015)

Diatoms are common with new tanks, the first algae you'll get after setting up a tank..3 otos will take care of it overnight.


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## Rinfish (Aug 16, 2015)

Indeed! Perhaps I'm not quite out of the woods yet.

Though I do like ottos, at the moment they aren't part of my long term set up for the tank, so i'd prefer to not buy them to solve a (hopefully) temporary issue. I havea 15g so I need to be a bit picky unfortunately haha.

Does Excel kill diatoms? I've been trying to spot treat the worst areas on plant leaves, but if not then i'll stop using it. No need to make my moss unhappy.


Is it too soon to grab some amano shrimp? My PH is about 6.5 and I recently purchased a GH and KH test kit which is in the mail. Additionally, I have almond and guava leaves ready to go to help support their environment, as well as liquid essential shrimp nutrients.

Yay/nay?


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## Aquaticz (Dec 26, 2009)

Excel has no effect on diatoms - looking into a disarm filter myself


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## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

A few Nerite snails should help.


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## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

Diatoms are generally self limiting because they depend on silicates that are normally present in new tanks, but uncommon in tap water. 

As you go about cleaning the tank, and filter, you are removing some of the diatoms, effectively removing some of the silicates. Eventually you remove enough and they go away. Most algae eaters love them because they are soft.

In theory you could use something like Phosguard for a short period of time to drive silicates down. Phosguard removes phosphate, which plants need, but it also removes silicate, which diatoms need but plants don't. You'd need to remove it after a few days and dose phosphate afterwards to keep the plants healthy.

I've not tried it before, but am currently experimenting with it against a different algae (I don't expect a strong impact against this strain, but I enjoy tinkering). I've had some suggest they used Phosguard to great effect against diatoms and the basic theory of this seems sound to me. It seems particularly reasonable if you've got a nutrient rich substrate that can provide phosphate to the plants via roots during the treatment. This won't really help floaters/mosses/plants on hardscape, but can mitigate the harm to stems.


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## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

The issue with silicates is largely a matter of "location, location, location". Some parts of the country have water supplies where dissolved silicates are just ever-present, some are occasionally present and some where silicates are non-existent. Living in a an area where my water supply is 400 feet below my house, I can tell you it's high in silicates.

But I just recently had a diatom revelation. One of the tanks I run is a 125G that's barebottom, a few huge sponge filters and until recently, ran three 5500K LED spotlights supplemented by two blue actinic T5's. I think they were 17W each. The glass would get covered in a matter of a few days, and plants would just get matted with the stuff. This is a tank that's been running for about 4 years now.

I just switched to a pair of Elive LED tubes. I didn't check, but these are definitely closer to a 10,000K, and the two tubes are only 7 watts each. Yup, it's definitely not as bright and definitely more blue. But for what I needed it works very well.

Here's the tie-in to this thread: The diatoms have become a non-issue. They went from being an every-other-day PITA to I have to look for small patches of it when doing water changes. The change was truly dramatic. What I haven't figured out is if it was just the lower wattage/lumens or the the increase from 5500K to what I think is close to 10,000K. I keep Hygro stems in pots in this tank and the difference there was equally amazing. No more brown-matted leaves and they actually grow!

Food for thought.


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## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

Bushkill said:


> The issue with silicates is largely a matter of "location, location, location". Some parts of the country have water supplies where dissolved silicates are just ever-present, some are occasionally present and some where silicates are non-existent. Living in a an area where my water supply is 400 feet below my house, I can tell you it's high in silicates.


I doesn't really matter how deep your water supply is underground, but rather what kind of rocks the water is passing though.. quartz (silicon dioxide) doesn't leach silicates.. but mica on the other hand....


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## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

My reference to depth was anecdotal, my reference to it being beneath my home was factual. Silicates are present in a huge swath of the northeast if the water is drawn from wells. The big cities are different animals in that their water comes from reservoirs that in some cases are miles away. The NYC water supply actually comes from the Catskill mountains which are a solid 2 hour drive, but it never makes its' way down to a subterranean aquifer; it's collected stream and river flow that winds through miles of pipe (not sure of composition).

Tons of folks that don't live in metropolitan areas draw water from wells that are in most cases drilled through many layers of rock formations. I know the small community well I draw from has also been "fracked" with pressurized water several times to loosen the rock formations it was drilled through and allow more water to seep through.....and more silicates. The OP lists Boston, but I know nothing about their water system, but the info should be real easy to get from the water company.


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## keymastr (May 25, 2015)

Looking at your pictures makes me think it is algae and not diatoms. Also your co2 is way too low if you are only getting 1 bubble every 4 seconds. My 20 gallon with DIY co2 is just right with 2 bubbles per second. Are you running 2 bottles and alternating each week?


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## Rinfish (Aug 16, 2015)

Thanks for all the replies so far! I had no idea Mica leeched silicates, this may be part of the problem. I have a few river rocks I brought back from the White Mountains, which has specs of mica here and there. I'm not entirely sure about my tap water, but i'll research it and make a few calls and see if its high in silicates as well.

Nice to know about the light! I'm hoping to keep my tank at most a med-tech tank, so I might try to figure out another solution...for now. 

I assumed my Co2 levels were on par with where they needed to be since my amazon sword and a few other plants were pearling (and the trimmed stems were releasing a small stream of o2 ). Could the co2 levels still be low despite that?

Additionally: These diatoms/algae can be removed very easily with fingers or simple scrubbing, but I have noticed green algae dots on my glass that are mixed in with the brown algae. It doesnt seem too tough to get rid of...but requires a bit more elbow grease than a light scrub.


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## Planted_Edge (Apr 29, 2015)

Sounds like GSA. Dose more phosphates and increase CO2


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## Rinfish (Aug 16, 2015)

I'll have to start doing two 2L bottles of yeast, it sounds like. I'll go to my LFS and see if I can get my hands on some tube connectors and some check valves.

Would one check valve per bottle be enough to prevent co2 leakage while I remove/alternate them? I've never done a two-bottle set up before.


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