Quote:
Originally posted by hankstanks
long story short. I am still getting lots of diatom alge in my 55gallon tank... ...No diatom on the sand or rocks but always on the glass. every day, every day...
Only Dose CA and Stronium on a reg basis. I use coral vite 24 hours before my last water change of the month...
Any clue? I also just got a small hair alge break out.
I feed every other day and have 3 fish and 13 corals.
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Cut the strontium altogether, what may be only a small problem will be magnified by the additions of micronutrients.
Find a deep rift valley, throw the Cor@l Vit@l (EvilWei$$) there. Do not buy more.
Keep sihponing the diatoms out, and check your RO/DI effluent for TDS (as already mentioned). If your filters for the water unit are anywhere near 1 year old, change them. If the tank has been set up for a while (more than 2 years). do a big water change of 50%. Change your carbon and reduce your photoperod to 10 hours or less a day for a week, then gradually go back to the 12 hr period. If your bulbs are more than 10-12 months old, change the bulbs when you reduce your photo period, but reduce the photoperiod to 6 hours with new bulbs and go up 30 minutes every 2 days till you get to 12 hrs again.
If you can add a herbivorious fish, a small foxface (
Siganus spp.) will help with overall
algae control. Snails (
Astrea spp.) will help with the glass. If the diatoms become a really big problem and these suggestion do not fix the problem, one of the bristletoothed tangs will eat the diatoms blooms, but 55 gal is a bit small for these specimens.
These suggestions address basic issues with nuisance algal growth. Lighting shifts to red as it ages, encouraging both diatom and microaolgal turf blooms. Foods such as the Cor@l V provide both extra nitrogen and growth-limiting phosphates to the water column.
Julian Sprung had mentioned at one time the issue with strontium abd other additives is much like turning up the volume knob on a radio. Thes volume iknob is not the source of the music nor the power, but it will affect the level of music once everything else is in place...
Diatoms bloom and die each 12 hour day, with the individuals that die leaving their nutrition available for the next organism bloom, siphoning out these organisms not only removes the insightly appearance, but removes the source of the problem (silicon and nitrogen and phosphates) as well. Best to remove them at the end of the photoperiod, when they have the most biomass and locked-up nutrition.
Just a few suggestions off-the-cuff, hth.
