# High tap silicates, Diatoms, and plants



## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

Silica on its own is not the cause of diatoms. Silicates are needed, but by itself does nothing. What you will probably find is that if you stopped feeding your fish, the diatoms stop growing. What kind of fish food are you feeding?


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## schnebbles (Jan 10, 2015)

My tank is new and I have that everywhere. I know I brought some sort of brown algae on a plant and it's all over my plants. I'm disgusted with it. About to tear out that one plant as soon as I find a replacement. 

I ordered phosguard and purigen but I'm leaving for vacation and it's delayed due to the weather so I don't know if I can put it in before I go. I'm going to keep up with my water changes and hope it goes away. 

Someone thought it might be brown spot algae but I think that might be the same thing. 

Im not sure if mine is because of new tank, or spread from those plants I got. I haven't gotten a silicate kit yet, but may.


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## Christophe (Oct 23, 2013)

You haven't mentioned your lighting intensity & duration -- that might have more influence than the silicates.


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## Ben125 (Dec 16, 2014)

Is 6 alot? My test kit said a 6 was pretty standard for most city water supplies. 

I thought my brown spots were diatoms but it turns out they were just regular brown algae. I figured this out when the spots grew into big slimy clumps after I added CO2.


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## Pariah Zero (Feb 15, 2015)

Christophe said:


> You haven't mentioned your lighting intensity & duration -- that might have more influence than the silicates.



Over the four years, that has changed. 

Originally, there were two 24" single tube aqueon color max t8 tubes at 12h/day. No plants at the time, just viewing lights. I don't recall the wattage but it was below 1wpg. 

Now I have a few plants, and I now have four 48" t5's, with aqueon 2 aqueon full spectrum, and two aqueon color max. It works out to roughly 2wpg from the T5's. (55 gal tank) Same 12 hour photoperiod.

Diatom growth is more or less the same.

I realize wpg is a bit archaic now, but I don't have a meter to measure lumens, par, or pur.

No co2, though I do use excel.

I also use plain seachem flourish.


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## Pariah Zero (Feb 15, 2015)

Ben125 said:


> Is 6 alot? My test kit said a 6 was pretty standard for most city water supplies.



Really? My test kit said 0.28. No argument, though; more data is always good.


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## schnebbles (Jan 10, 2015)

Ben - how did you get rid of it?


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## Pariah Zero (Feb 15, 2015)

schnebbles: Diatom blooms are reportedly a common thing for new tanks, and they typically resolve themselves over time (a few months).


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## Pariah Zero (Feb 15, 2015)

Solcielo lawrencia said:


> What you will probably find is that if you stopped feeding your fish, the diatoms stop growing.


Perhaps, but that's not a long term solution. The general guideline for Goldfish feeding is 0.5-1% of the fish's weight per day. Some breeders suggest 2% of the fish's weight as the minimum.

I've been feeding my fish on the order of 0.3% per day (well below the guideline), and definitely not overfeeding.



> What kind of fish food are you feeding?



New Live Spectrum Goldfish Formula, and Hikari Lionhead


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## Christophe (Oct 23, 2013)

Pariah Zero said:


> Over the four years, that has changed.
> 
> Originally, there were two 24" single tube aqueon color max t8 tubes at 12h/day. No plants at the time, just viewing lights. I don't recall the wattage but it was below 1wpg.
> 
> ...


For a non-CO2 tank, I've got two ideas:

First thought is shorten that photoperiod to six hours or so, definitely no more than eight. Twelve is way overkill -- put it on a timer that has it on for the time you're around most to enjoy it.

Second, you probably have too much light -- you could pull at least one, probably two bulbs out of your fixture and still be good to grow a lot of different plants.

Try these things out for a few weeks along with continuing your regular 50% water changes at least weekly, you should see things get a bit easier to manage.

Check Hoppy's lighting thread, it's loaded with good info for estimating what you really need, if you haven't already seen it.


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## Pariah Zero (Feb 15, 2015)

Christophe said:


> Check Hoppy's lighting thread, it's loaded with good info for estimating what you really need, if you haven't already seen it.


I have Aqueon T5NO tubes and fixtures, and I think the closest match is the Coralight dual T5NO lamp listed


Coralife & Aqueon are both brands of _Central Garden and Pet_.
The Aqueon fixtures appear identical in both appearance and included tubes to Coralife's Dual Aqualight T5NO.
The wattage of the tubes is identical
The spectrum of the tubes are identical (using the same spectrum graphic, even)
Both Aqueon and Coralife use the _Colormax_ brand

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the fixtures and tubes are _identical_, and only differ in packaging.

So, I'll use the curve for the Coralife Daylight T5NO tubes from Hoppy's thread...

And the PAR isn't that high, actually. The Coralife fixture/tube combo is literally the bottom of the list.

My tank is 24" deep at maximum, so according to the curve, I'm probably looking at between 9-30 µmol/m^2*s (with 30 at the 'centerline' of the tank) per fixture, and I have two... So my PAR would be somewhere in the range of 18-60, depending on depth.

Most of my plants are near the bottom, as they're young & haven't had much time to grow...

So does that still sound like I should still just turn off one of the fixtures and/or shorten the photoperiod?

I'm a newbie to planted tanks... so I'm willing to try doing things different, instead of doubling down on the stupid... One question: The lights I currently have are a new addition. I haven't noticed the diatom growth increase with more light. My plants, on the other hand, have started to win vs the goldfish, so I definitely like having more light, but obviously there's a balance to be made.


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## Midnighttide102 (Oct 2, 2014)

Barley straw works wonders on absorbing extra silicates in your water do a search online about it there are a few good articles on it


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## FatherLandDescendant (Jul 24, 2014)

Your constant blooms are due to the fact that gold fish constantly dig in the substrate. Tank with fish that like to dig and root around in the substrate often never get over having diatom issues. 

Diatoms are caused by more than silicates, though they are a heavy contributor. If you have plants in the tank and you strip the silicates from the water you will also strip the phosphates as well, as the available media to strip one always strips both from what I've seen.

Here's a write up I did on diatoms.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=723809


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Use the phosphate adsorbing media to prep the water. This way very low levels go into the tank to begin with. Then you do not need to keep the silicate removing (phosphate removing) media running in the tank all the time. Perhaps just a week or two to get the level as low as possible. 

Here is what I would do:
1) It sounds like the light is highly concentrated at the center of the tank. Is there any way to spread out the bulbs? Or is this where the plants are concentrated?

2) Prep water for a water change, and let it stand overnight, run a small filter with the phosphate removing product. Even a small pump with the phosphate removing material close by could help. Any way you can rig it up so the water passes through the media. Use what you have on hand. 

3) Test this water with your silica test. If the test shows the media is helpful, but not great you can figure out a better way to run it, or add more media, or figure out a different way to remove the silica. Perhaps some different treatment? 

4) Do a water change. Concentrate on any non-planted area, and try to pull the water out from through the substrate. One way to do this is to dig into the substrate and put the siphon near the bottom of the tank. Hold the substrate back by hand. 

5) Add more phosphate remover to the tank. Yes, it is also removing fertilizer. Don't leave it there for more than a few days, maybe a week. 

6) Repeat the water change with water as low in silica as you can get. Clean the filter pretty well.

7) Remove the silica (phosphate) media from your filter, and see if the level comes up over the week.


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## Ben125 (Dec 16, 2014)

schnebbles said:


> Ben - how did you get rid of it?


I never did totally. As I understand it, brown algae is a symptom of fluctuating CO2 levels and since I cant afford a decent regulator right now I just vacuum it out when I do my water changes. 

I tried one of those phosgard pillows before I knew it wasn't diatoms so that did basically nothing. H2O2 didn't affect it much. The thing that works the best is to just turn out your lights for like 3-4 days and overdose some excel.


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## mrpixel (Feb 28, 2012)

The other option to rid yourself of it is Otocinclus's. They love the stuff. I had a tank that was covered in it and after I put Oto's in and they cleaned it completely, they spawned. So their that.


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## Pariah Zero (Feb 15, 2015)

Diana said:


> Here is what I would do:
> 1) It sounds like the light is highly concentrated at the center of the tank. Is there any way to spread out the bulbs? Or is this where the plants are concentrated?


Clarification: by centerline, I mean the center from the bottom to the top (ie. closer to the lights, which are on top). The lights are 48" tubes.

My communication skills clearly need polishing...



> 2) Prep water for a water change, and let it stand overnight, run a small filter with the phosphate removing product. Even a small pump with the phosphate removing material close by could help. Any way you can rig it up so the water passes through the media. Use what you have on hand.


Sounds good; may be a couple weeks, as the largest container I have is my QT tank, which is in use. Then I have to clean, sterilize, etc. 

The rest also sounds like a good plan, and I'll see how it goes. 


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