They can last on average 6-8 months in a new tank IME. As Kashta said, "mature" tanks rarely see diatoms.
ripping my hair out!
- Thread starter austinpetemo
- Start date
Kicking 'up' the lights may encourage growth... cutting back on the photoperiod combined with less feeding would be the best strategy to mitigate, but not eliminate, the diatoms.
i never had any probs with the diatoms until this tank. its been up for i think nearly 6 months now. i have a small population of MTS(i think, i havnt seen any in a while) but they dont help. i would put in an algae eater but this is only a 10g tank and the multies would rip him apart. idk. im gonna go scrub it off 2night i think cuz i need to blast the sand anyway so no bubbles appear.
Agree. The less you do in there right now, the better. Minimize feeding, reduce the photoperiod, and let it run it's course. Keep up with required water changes, but that's it. You can wipe the glass or whatever is easy to reach without disturbing the gravel, but that just stirs up the diatoms you don't collect on the scrubber/sponge right back into the water column again. So there's some benefit, just not a lot. Six months is about the right timing for this. You could add in a large bundle of fast growing plants, preferable with pond snails.
