# Filamentous diatoms



## Drakewigeon (Feb 10, 2020)

Still a rookie here....so take it easy!

I believe what I have is filamentous diatoms in my ~3 week old tank. 

Can anyone confirm via the picture?

I know there’s a lot of factors in play here but, generally here’s what I have and any input on solving the problem is appreciated:

-20 gallon long tank
-Fluval stratum substrate
-Fluval 3.0 plant light (just reduced from 10 hrs to 6 hours a day)
-Fluval 107 canister
-temp between 76.5 and 77.5 consistently
-no co2 setup

Latest test readings:
KH-2 dH
GH-3 dH
pH-~6.9
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-1.5ppm
Nitrate-30ppm

This was with a ~50% water change yesterday.

I dose the following:
-Seachem stability daily
-Seachem prime at water change or if anything spikes and I don’t have time to do a water change
-Thrive all-in-one ferts once a week
-Flourish Excel daily
-Dosing Seachem alkaline and acid buffers to keep pH neutral or slightly acidic

There is currently no fish load but high plant load

The diatoms (could be wrong on my ID) doubled in size the past two days so last night I manually removed and did that water change. They grew again today but not as much as they had been. 

Am I on the right track if I keep doing more frequent water changes and keep light exposure length shorter???

Thanks!

Forgot the pic.....here ya go


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## Streetwise (May 24, 2019)

That looks like a good start. I think you will see some benefits from shortening your photoperiod.


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## Blue Ridge Reef (Feb 10, 2008)

Agree that turning down light and increasing water changes could only help. I'd also stop the use of the buffers, personally. If your KH is 2, you've got soft water and unless something in the tank is raising it, buffering up and down is only leading to instability in my view.


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## Drakewigeon (Feb 10, 2020)

Blue Ridge Reef said:


> Agree that turning down light and increasing water changes could only help. I'd also stop the use of the buffers, personally. If your KH is 2, you've got soft water and unless something in the tank is raising it, buffering up and down is only leading to instability in my view.



I was actually buffering up with the alkaline buffer in higher ratio than the acid buffer as I was as having KH readings of 0 and lower pH than I wanted. My intent was to create more stability since 0kh, as I understand it creates possibility of unstable ph. 

I think the stratum substrate and large wood pieces are causing gradual ph drops. I’m happy with 6.9 for now, we’ll see where it ends up.


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## Blue Ridge Reef (Feb 10, 2008)

With active substrate, your water's KH is going to be as close to 0 as the substrate can get. It's a losing battle to buffer against it. Think running a humidifier and dehumidifier in the same room. If you want a higher pH, you picked the wrong substrate, sorry to be the bearer of bad news. These buffering soils are designed to keep an acidic environment. For what it's worth, most plants do great in it.


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## Fat Guy (Nov 19, 2003)

What’s your light intensity setting on the Fluval? I’d knock your intensity way way down. Take control of your lighting and you can get a handle on your algae issue. Here’s a good read from a different forum but the advice given is on point and will save you a lot of time and effort with your tank:

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/diatom-dilemma.27208/


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## Drakewigeon (Feb 10, 2020)

Fat Guy said:


> What’s your light intensity setting on the Fluval? I’d knock your intensity way way down. Take control of your lighting and you can get a handle on your algae issue. Here’s a good read from a different forum but the advice given is on point and will save you a lot of time and effort with your tank:
> 
> https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/diatom-dilemma.27208/


Thanks everyone for the input and the link. I’ll attach two photos of my plant light settings. The higher light one is what I had it set at, the lowered intensity one is what I just set it at (so it’ll begin tomorrow). Let me know if you think the drop is appropriate???

I kept the color spectrum ratios similar.

Don’t know why it only attached one photo last time...here ya go


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## Drakewigeon (Feb 10, 2020)

I’m a little embarrassed to even show that I had some of the light up to 100% in such a shallow tank, but remember the whole self-admitted “rookie” thing 😕


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## Streetwise (May 24, 2019)

There are many of us here who enjoy these lights, and many threads. My quick tip is drop the blue way down. I like a dual siesta for my low-tech tanks.


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## Fat Guy (Nov 19, 2003)

Yeah, you are running it for too long and IMHO with too much intensity on new tank. Especially because your tank is a 20 gallon long and only 3 weeks old. I would reduce your peak photo period even more. Tweaking the blue isn’t going to solve the algae issue you are having as it is not the cause of your problem but is a variable you can adjust in the future.

I would read the ukaps link I posted on your thread earlier regarding diatoms. It will give you a great understanding of how to light your tank successfully in order to avoid these problems. We make it all too complicated in this hobby trying to solve an issue in our tank and there is a ton of misinformation out there that can steer us in the wrong direction. The one that bugs me the most is when hobbyists tell other hobbyists to increase their lighting to battle diatom algae...:icon_roll:icon_roll:icon_roll

You are showing that you have nitrite readings in your tank so you are still waiting for more nitrifying bacteria to establish and for your tank to be cycled which makes sense with your tank being only 3 weeks old. But the light intensity is the real issue here and you should back it way down and it will help you get a hold of your tank. Your plants will adjust to lower light settings, it just takes time and patience. I would eventually consider switching to co2 a little further down the road once you get a better grip on the tank. I’d manually remove as much as you can each day followed by a 75% water changes. You don’t have any fish in there at the moment so you can be more aggressive. You can even use H202 to help you get rid of it quicker.

Here’s an example of my light settings on my 20G. This tank is 14” high and my light sits roughly 3” off the glass. I was battling a brown algae bloom that happened 4 months after setup after I added additional substrate...the algae bloom was a blessing in disguise. It forced me to rethink my lighting. After reducing the intensity and duration the brown algae has disappeared and my plants are responding better than ever and my tank maintenance is weekly water changes and trimming.

Hope that helps. Good luck!


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## Drakewigeon (Feb 10, 2020)

Fat Guy said:


> Yeah, you are running it for too long and IMHO with too much intensity on new tank. Especially because your tank is a 20 gallon long and only 3 weeks old. I would reduce your peak photo period even more. Tweaking the blue isn’t going to solve the algae issue you are having as it is not the cause of your problem but is a variable you can adjust in the future.
> 
> I would read the ukaps link I posted on your thread earlier regarding diatoms. It will give you a great understanding of how to light your tank successfully in order to avoid these problems. We make it all too complicated in this hobby trying to solve an issue in our tank and there is a ton of misinformation out there that can steer us in the wrong direction. The one that bugs me the most is when hobbyists tell other hobbyists to increase their lighting to battle diatom algae...<a href="https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Icon Rolleyes" ></a><a href="https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Icon Rolleyes" ></a><a href="https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Icon Rolleyes" ></a>
> 
> ...


Thank you for all the info!

I have a co2 system (co2art) but don’t want to add another variable just yet. 

I am looking at your light settings and I am shocked! When do you get to enjoy your tank with such minimal photoperiod??

I will gradually bring mine down to that if need be. I like the red coloring on the plants and want to have some time to enjoy a lighted tank during the day though......

Time will tell

Also...not to be a weeny, but can anyone confirm that what I originally thought was filamentous diatoms was, in fact, that??

It seems like the cures for that vs algae is basically the same, but just wanted to make sure of my ID


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## Fat Guy (Nov 19, 2003)

Drakewigeon said:


> When do you get to enjoy your tank with such minimal photoperiod??


Lights go on at 8:15 am and go off at 10 pm ... so I’d say I enjoy it all day. 

There’s roughly a 3 hour peak where my plants pearl from 1pm - 4pm when I am home the most and then it ramps down... which I love...and the best part is that I’m not looking at algae all day...

Good luck to ya and your planted tank journey 

Here’s mine-


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