how in gods green earth do you get rid of these freaking god forsaken diatoms! i kicked up the lights, and started feeding less. and the stupid things are growing in full force!!!! HOW DO YOU MAKE THEM GO AWAY!
ripping my hair out!
- Thread starter austinpetemo
- Start date
It's an algae that looks like a brown grungy coating on everything - glass, gravel, rocks, plants, tubing. If the fish would sit still long enough, it'd probably cover them too... lol. (kidding) Since diatoms feed off nitrates and silicone in the water column, it's real common for people with new fish tanks that still have relatively fresh sealant (silicon source) for them. You'll hear about thick diatom blooms which just means there's a lot of it. Makes the water look dingy too. As unsightly as it looks, it's a normal stage to go through between a new tank setup and a truly mature tank. That's "mature" as in well-beyond it just being cycled. Most algae-eating snails and so forth will eat some of it. And at low levels, this helps to keep it in check. Hard to get rid of, of course. We usually do a lot of water changes when it's visible. That pulls out some of the nitrates, which is good, but most tap water contains silicone too, as does all water (so it gets even worse). Diatom blooms happen in the oceans too on a much larger scale. There are filter systems with very dense micron media to help filter out microscopic bits like diatoms. But it's still hard to get rid of.. hard to keep it from coming back.
All of my tanks go through this stage when I first set them up. The ones that have been running 6+ months stay nice and clean.
