# Diatoms killing everything



## vespers_ (May 6, 2011)

now i'm not sure about this, but i had diatoms at first too. the thing is it only grew on certain leaves of certain plants. 

the leaves were leaves that i believe were grown emersed at the pet store/supplier and then placed submerged in my tank. no matter what i did, the diatoms covered those leaves, but left the new submerged growth alone. eventually i just trimmed the emersed leaves and haven't had any problems since. are these new plants?

diatoms appear when there are excess silicates in your water. i would check that out.


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## h2oaggie (Feb 28, 2011)

I wish that was the case. The diatoms affect nearly every plant, no matter how long it has been in the aquarium. I also know that our water supply has high silicate levels, though I don't know the exact concentration. I just hope there is a way to get rid of the diatoms with having to use an RO/DI system.


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## Abrium (Jan 7, 2011)

mystery snails... lots and lots of mystery snails. You put 8 to 10 mystery snails in that tank and I assure you that they will mow right through diatoms. Of course you can't have fish large enough in the aquarium to mess with them but I have all types of algae eaters in my tank and from one A & M alumni to another (possibly) mystery snails are the cheapest and quickest. Oto cats love diatoms too but they just aren't as fast as good ol' mystery snails.

Cheers,
Abe


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## Noahma (Oct 18, 2009)

Amano shrimp LOVE diatoms too, I just added two to my Flora, and within 48 hours they have almost completely cleaned the Diatoms off the back wall. I have added them to almost every tank I have had so far.


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## h2oaggie (Feb 28, 2011)

Mystery snails, like the ones at petsmart being sold under that name? Those are a species of apple snail, correct? Wonder if my tiger barbs will bother them.


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## Abrium (Jan 7, 2011)

slightly, I was more referring to larger cichlids that have the ability to really do damage. The barbs may pick at the snails from time to time but ultimately won't be able to do real damage to them.

Noahma is correct too regarding the amano shrimp. They will clear it up also but at about 4 X the cost of the snail I didn't see a reason to purchase them once I seen that the mystery snails had it all under control.


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## h2oaggie (Feb 28, 2011)

So I am correct that they are the ones that can be found at petsmart?


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## Abrium (Jan 7, 2011)

Petsmart, Petco, and even walmart carries them. At least they do here.


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## scape (Nov 27, 2010)

I would get the _right _ snails at your lfs. The one I go to here even gives you the scientific name.


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## h2oaggie (Feb 28, 2011)

Unfortunately there is no LFS within 2 hours of me. Petsmart and Petco are it.


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## JoraaÑ (Jun 29, 2009)

you get those snail. shrimps in SnS Forum if you put WTB thread...Easier and time saving rather than going away 2 hours to LFS....shoot Pm to msjinkzd, she will hook you up!


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## scape (Nov 27, 2010)

h2oaggie said:


> Unfortunately there is no LFS within 2 hours of me. Petsmart and Petco are it.


Nice! Have 50-75k and all out aquarium OCD? Open your own LFS :icon_smil


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## Paragon (Jan 16, 2011)

My amano aren't doing much to kill off the diatoms, I fear. I might have to go the snail route.


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## accordztech (Dec 6, 2004)

What such substrate do you use? IM having the same problem minus plant die off. If i put the infected plants in my shrimp tank they eat it up and the plant is brand new


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## h2oaggie (Feb 28, 2011)

I am using Turface, which is just inert fired clay, so there should be no silica leaching.


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## littlebittyfish (Feb 13, 2011)

I have 3 mystery snails in my 10 gallon and they don't touch the diatoms..:icon_neut


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## night9eyes (Jan 12, 2011)

I was combating major diatom issues when I first set up my 90. It was all over my pennywort and sword leaves! So I hit it hard. First is seemed to like to settle on my driftwood. So I took it out, boiled it again, scrubbed it, and put it back in my tank. Then I did TWO water changes with a siphon and vacuumed it off the leaves (removing the leaves with damage) and from my substrate, cleaned my intake and outtake tubing with water, and cleaned the canister with just water, changing out the floss. Most of the diatoms had settled at the bottom of my Eheim canister, so they were just being "recycled" back into the water. That's probably where the main problem was. After the "cleaning" my husband and I changed out 1/2 the water with RO and we haven't had a problem since. Some people said they go away on their own, and other's had good experiences with doing a "cleaning" like I did. Now I have no more water cloudiness due to diatoms, all my plants look greener, and overall my tank looks clean. HTH.


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

littlebittyfish said:


> I have 3 mystery snails in my 10 gallon and they don't touch the diatoms..:icon_neut


You've spoiled them.. time for some tough love and a mandatory starvation!


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

My [STRIKE]five[/STRIKE] :icon_cry: now four ottos are fat from eating it, but it grows faster than they can keep up with it. Once I get my hardscape installed this week, I don't want to keep tearing it down to keep scrubbing again and again.

I suppose I'll have to do several water changes to rid the water of excess silicates from my old established #3 aquarium gravel bed. Repetitive scrubbing is out of the question. Gotta get rid of the underlying cause, not just the symptoms.


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## h2oaggie (Feb 28, 2011)

Well I don't know what exactly did it, but the diatoms are GONE! I added a BN pleco and a 5th oto on Wednesday last week, and removed one of the T5HO bulbs, leaving 24W of T5HO over my 29 gallon. I rushed out of town on Thursday due to a family emergency and just got back today. No nutrient dosing occurred for the last week. When I got home the tank looked incredible. Perhaps its was the BN and oto, or the removal of a bulb, I will never know. This is the best my tank has ever looked, who would have thought it would take a week of neglect to do it.


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

I'd say that extra T5HO light bulb you removed did the trick.


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## h2oaggie (Feb 28, 2011)

> I'd say that extra T5HO light bulb you removed did the trick.


That's what I am leaning towards as well. It is odd that I have heard diatoms become a problem with low light, and increasing the amount of light can make them go away. I did the opposite and got the same reaction.

It is also possible that it is due to the temperature of the bulb I removed. When I purchased the fixture it came with two 6500K bulbs, one was burnt out and the other looked like crap. I replaced the burnt out one with a nice 6700K Hagen bulb. The last week I was only running the Hagen bulb.


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