Diatoms - The Bane Of My Life

[Ps3Steveo]

So basically its a good ammonia filter.

Prevents it which will help with the diatoms.

 

[ian]

Sorry, kcb was asking about dosing ammonia, so it's fine when dosing ammonia as it isn't an ammonia filter like zeolite. If you say basically ammonia filter, any a bac is an ammonia filter.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Right well soon as he stops dosing ammonia, gives the tank a clean and puts in the purigen in which he may not need as we didn't know he was dosing ammonia till an hour ago, it will help to keep the diatoms down.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I have a question along these lines too. I have two tanks with this same thing going on... one more than the other and I've assumed its down to the difference in lighting (as neither one of my tanks is newly cycled).

I have found that adding several moss balls has significantly slowed the growth of the brown stuff but hasn't stopped it.

I've never heard of purigen... would this work for me too?

 

[KCB]

Are you getting nitrates? If so why are you dosing your tank with ammonia? The cycle wont die off.

Yep, tank has been cycled for 3 weeks now. Nitrates are off the charts sometimes as I'm dosing ammonia and it's broken down so quickly (I do water changes to keep it down).

I was under the impression that without a source of ammonia the bacteria will die? If that's not true, how long will the bacteria last without a source of 'food'? The fish will be in QT until next Saturday so it needs to last until then.

Right well soon as he stops dosing ammonia, gives the tank a clean and puts in the purigen in which he may not need as we didn't know he was dosing ammonia till an hour ago, it will help to keep the diatoms down.

It's she . So I didn't actually need this purigen? That sucks as money is tight at the moment

.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

If you had told us you were dosing ammonia I'd have given different advice lol, sorry she , well it shouldn't die off too fast, but maybe back off the ammonia at the moment and dose a little, when are the fish QT'd? Is it going to be long?

 

[KCB]

If you had told us you were dosing ammonia I'd have given different advice lol, sorry she

, well it shouldn't die off too fast, but maybe back off the ammonia at the moment and dose a little, when are the fish QT'd? Is it going to be long?

Yeh one of the most vital pieces of info and I forget it, sods law lol. The fish have been in there since the 1st December and will be released on the 22nd December (depending on if they show any symptoms of disease, all seems ok at the moment except one or two have a frayed dorsal and/or anal fin and they are a little stressed [bare tank may be the cause]). So it's not going to be too long. I'll switch to half doses from now on.

At least I'll have crystal clear water by the end of this

.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Yeah its great for that too, I'm renewing mine next month, on the bright side it will stop the diatoms in the future.

 

[KCB]

Yeah its great for that too, I'm renewing mine next month, on the bright side it will stop the diatoms in the future.

That's good, I've definitely had my fill of them already .

 

[KCB]

The tank looks much better now after a deep clean and prune. I found that the E. tennellus leaves weren't all dead, most of them were/are covered in diatoms! I couldn't think of a way to clean them so I have just left them. There was some diatoms on the amazon swords so I managed to rub most of them off. I also removed the fish hide as the colour had worn off, guess it's not suitable for aquariums

. So would you advise I half dose ammonia everyday? Every other day?

Earlier

Now

Also, diatoms absolutely reek. It smells very much like sulphur

.

 

[KCB]

I've decided to cut the QT short and add the fish. They're perfectly healthy but I was going to keep them in there an extra week just as an extra precaution. They've settled in really well and hopefully I won't get any more diatoms as I'm not dosing ammonia everyday .