# Diatoms ATTACK!! New 55 gallon tank, HELP! (LOTs of Pics)



## 10kredline (Nov 6, 2014)

Setup this new 55 tank for about 2 months now. Tried to speed up the tank cycle with Seachem Stability for the first week or so. Planted the new plants into the tank and later added fishes and now I'm getting diatoms everywhere. All over the rocks, sand and plants. HC is melting away but slowly stopped, my downois have diatoms all over it's leaves as well as the anubias and the S. Repens. AR's are doing fine though, bright red. What am I doing wrong or should I just wait it out? I'm doing the same process as my nano tank and it's doing fine.

Setup
48" T5 & Current USA LED Plus - Lighting 7 hours 
CO2 (paintball) 2-3 bps - Nonstop-day and night
Substrate - Eco-Complete, black sand and natural sand
GLA pps-pro Micros and Macros - 5-6mL both bottle everyday in the morning.
Seachem's Excel - 6mL everyday in the morning.
Seachem's Iron - 5mL once in a while because I see yellowing in the plants.
Water Change - 50-70% every sunday (due to browning of the water from wood)


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

Diatoms are common in new set ups. They can go away on their own in a few weeks or so. Not entirely sure what does it.
But itxs said diatoms can be brought on from excess nutrients, excess silicates/phosophates. People keep saying too much or too little light causes them, not really sure which is right. I think more light would have the plants better out compete the diatoms for nutrients.

As for the co2 when the lights are off, not sure if diatoms also depends on photosynthesis or not, if they don't then maybe the co2 at night may be accelerating their growth. Not sure though.

You can get algae eater fish, snails or shrimp. Otos only eat soft algae like diatoms and soft green algae, so they might starve without a constant supply of those, I hear algae wafers arenxt eaten since they really aren't primarily algae.

You can wipe it off by hand until it clears up on its own.

There are also phoophate remover products, but not advised aince plants also need phosophates.

Beautiful tank by the way!


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## turbosaurus (Nov 19, 2005)

Seriously, I don't see diatoms... hardly an ATTACK! Lol. 

If my eyes are just bad, Ottos will clear it up right away if you're in a rush. They will survive just fine long term, scavenging algae and eating flake or algae wafers (which are mostly fish meal anyway- they contain very little actual algae). 


Diatoms are are not the result of too much light or too much ferts, in that you could not trigger a diatom outbreak in an established tank. They will use up the silicates in a new tank and never return. Your options are:
1) wait (2 months +/-)
2) manual removal (constantly)
3) 3-6 ottos (they'll have you cleared up in a couple days)

BTW, tank is beautiful.


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## PortalMasteryRy (Oct 16, 2012)

I see more deficiency attack LOL


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## 10kredline (Nov 6, 2014)

Yea, I have 4 ottos and 7-10 cherry shrimps. I cleaned up most of it but it was worse than this, I just didn't take a picture then. The diatoms are there but the pictures aren't great compared to seeing in person. As for "deficiency attack"..lol...am I dosing the ferts correctly? I'm following GLA's directions which is to dose daily with 1 mL per 10 gallons. I used to dose E.I method but switched.


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## turbosaurus (Nov 19, 2005)

PortalMasteryRy said:


> I see more deficiency attack LOL


really... show me your HC carpet and then tell me where he's defficient. 

10k, Im surprised you're having such a severe problem with Ottos. How long have you been suffering the diatoms? I still want to tell to you wait... but.. 

If it were my tank, and I also got some ottos and had waited and was not seeing any improvement- the first thing I would do is stop feeding the fish, and then I would try something that may be considered a little extreme- Stop your water changes for a week. 

We are sure that as your tank stablilizes diatoms will loose their hold and they will not come back. The one thing they need that your plants do not is dissolved silicates. I am wondering if your removal (which I assume is done with a siphon, then replaced with tap water) might be resupplying this necessary ingredient for their development, an ingredient that your plants do not need. 

If I were you and my other water parameters were stable, it would be something I would try- I want to be clear, there is NO DATA to support this idea as an advisable course of action to eliminate diatoms and if you do I encourage extra vigilance for other problems and having the fortitude to let it get bad before it (might) get better. Considering your other options are to follow advice that is 50/50 split blacking out the tank or doubling your light- increasing your ferts or removing them from the water, Im not sure it is any more silly.


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## PortalMasteryRy (Oct 16, 2012)

turbosaurus said:


> really... show me your HC carpet and then tell me where he's defficient.
> 
> 10k, Im surprised you're having such a severe problem with Ottos. How long have you been suffering the diatoms? I still want to tell to you wait... but..
> 
> ...


I don't have HC in my tank. Too messy. I use Marsilea minuta as my carpet plant because it looks like a dark glosso. Easier to maintain too since it does not simply break into little pieces and I love it since it does no try to grow upwards compared to glosso.

I don't have a pic handy but I'll get one to show my AR. 

The reason I mentioned deficiency is because some pics are showing yellowing of the leaf tips, stunting and curling of leaves and the AR is showing lighter color on the older leaves. I won't say C02 because the leaf tips and newer leaves are showing good growth. It could also be trace toxicity. 

I've also grown healthy downoi in the past and the leaves are usually much more thicker and the roughness of the leaf margins is very consistent with the older and younger leaves. The color of the leaves should also be consistent with the older and younger leaves and a healthy plant will have a white central vein in each leaf (I think).

I just wanted to point out that possible nutrient deficiency in the tank or toxicity (because of the curled leaves).


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## 10kredline (Nov 6, 2014)

I'm just going to wait it out and monitor the water parameters. Thanks for your reply guys.


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## turbosaurus (Nov 19, 2005)

PortalMasteryRy said:


> I don't have HC in my tank. Too messy. I use Marsilea minuta as my carpet plant because it looks like a dark glosso.


HC is one of those really beautiful tight carpets. Part of its appeal is that its so hard to get it to do well; its a PITA to secure in the substrate and its hard to grow. When it does, Its kinda the Everest of foreground plants because it needs sooo much light and its really hard to balance, looks to me like 10k's rocking it.. All the photos look a little washed out, but Im confident its overexposure on the camera, not an actual yellowing of the plant. 

Marsilea is less demanding. Comparing the two is kinda like giving advice on growing eriocalulon based on your bacopa results. 

If you tried HC cuba and it didn't work, but you still like the way it looks, look for HC monte carlo- (10k, do you know which you have? Its small, I think you're growing cuba and I love it) Monte Carlo is becoming very popular in the hobby because its MUCH less demanding, you might end up liking it better than your marselea.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

No, HC does not need a lot of light. CO2 is far more important for the plant to do well. I agree that it is far too messy and difficult to keep though lol... Verrrry carefully trimming it every week or two is a huge PITA but if you are willing to put in the work it is a beautiful carpet plant.

I agree with ry that the plants in the first and third pics look deficient and are hurting. Poorly colored/curled leaves is immediately a sign of deficiency. While many of your other plants are doing fine I would still look to correct this. Absorption and yellowing of leaves is probably something like N or P (I think) (or some kind of mobile nutrient) because the plant wants to absorb the nutrients from old leaves to promote new growth. Also consider looking to CO2 because 2-3bps in a 55g is not that much CO2 IMO.

While diatoms will certainly go away (I have been through multiple diatom outbreaks) once things settle and your plants grow in more you should still look to get all your plants as healthy as possible for the time being so you don't have to fight it as much. I am pretty certain that once all this stuff grows in and you have like 2-3x that plant mass you will be totally fine.


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