Diatoms

[toniell]

How long should it take to get rid of Diatoms be in a freshly cycled tank?

[toniell]

OK i see that my topic is not very entertaining so as soonas my batteries are charged I will take pic of my tank and yyou guys can tell me if its normal or not.

[toniell]

Well here are the pics tell me what you think.

[afbengochea]

wow I never got it that bad. How long has it been set up for? What are the water parameters? Was this cured or incured rock?

[bubblybabs]

You have me scared now because my tank has just started to get a layer on the sand... Finally get my nitrates down and now this... SIGH

Am reading about silica causing this? So I need to get something that will remove the silica from my water, right? That and sucking the stuff out...

Babs

[Wiskey]

I've gotten it worse then that before,.. I wouldn't worry about anything to remove cillica just let it run it's course.

For now just crank up the skimmer, and it should dissapear in a couple weeks or less.

Whiskey

[toniell]

Well I disasembled my tank because I believe the problem is that when I switched fromm CC to a DSB I never took out my crusshed coral, just mixed it around. So I took it all out and I am going woth a DSB again now the last time I got sand I took it from the beach strained it and boiled it(it was dry) is this OK or is that a bad idea,alot easier on the wallet. so basically I am just looking for sme approval on the beach sand and then i'll go get some tis is a ocean beach but cold climate.

[landshark]

I put a few turbo snails in a 150g tank and was amazed at how quickly they cleaned the live rock... a few days..

[toniell]

In the three years that there has been saltwater fish available around where I live I have never seen a true turbo snail always astrea snails and the only cerith snails that the all pro lfs can get are the little false ones. those little things you would need like 150 of them for them to work.

[bubblybabs]

Originally Posted by toniell

So I took it all out and I am going woth a DSB again now the last time I got sand I took it from the beach strained it and boiled it(it was dry) is this OK or is that a bad idea,alot easier on the wallet. so basically I am just looking for sme approval on the beach sand and then i'll go get some tis is a ocean beach but cold climate.

You would think beach sand would be OK though I am far from an expert on this...
Babs

[Geoff]

find a small piece of LR with sponges on it. put it in your tank. within a few weeks as the sponges start spreading around to the rest of the LR they will bind up the silica and the diatom bloom will go away. the problem with diatom blooms is that the snails and stuff that eat it poo out the silica adding more fuel to the diatoms. it is not till sponges bind up the silica that the cycle will nearly stop.

G~