Diatoms - The Bane Of My Life

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KCB

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I know this isn't technically algae but it's a similar annoyance and I just want it gone! I was told that this brown stuff in my tank is diatoms and was told to do a water change. Well I did that until the nitrAtes were 20ppm (same as tap water) but the problem is getting out of hand very quickly. It grows by the day and will soon cover all sides of the glass. After doing some research I've read that the best thing you can do is wait it out as diatoms feed on the silicates and nitrates in the tank and will die out when their food supply has run out. Is that true? Is there anything I can do to resolve this problem or at least slow it down? I don't want to add a clean-up crew or anything like that though. I'm worried it's going to take over the tank and I'll have to re-do the whole thing.

Thanks in advance!

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P.S. The tank has just finished cycling, the picture in my sig was taken maybe 1-2 weeks ago.
 
Stick a bag of purigen in your filter, it will help a lot.

P.S. Sounds like your filter isn't cycled, get rid of any dying leaves too as that wont help.
 
Purigen I'll look that up and remove the deadens. The bacteria can process 4ppm of ammonia in 24 hours and I haven't had a nitrite reading since it first spiked and went away, is that not cycled? I also get nitrates. I've been doing this fish-less cycle for about 90 days now
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I know this isn't technically algae

Certainly is classed as an algae.

It's common in new set ups. Just continue to keep the water clean with water changes, scrub it off and don't have the lights on for more than 8 hours a day. :)
 
Oh I had read somewhere that it wasn't, I'm glad I came to the right section then ;). I scrub off as much as I can, but how do I remove them from sand? That's what's really concerning me, having my new sand turn into a permanent brown mess :(. I've been a little lax with the tank maintenance since I got some fish in my QT tank, I'll step up the water changes and remove the dead plants.

Does anyone know if I can buy purigen from Maidenhead Aquatics?
 
Maybe they were referring to BGA which is cyanobacteria,

Anyhow..regarding the sand, just stir it gently so that new clean sand comes to the surface. Algae needs light.
 
It happens in newly cycled tanks. But it should go away in a few weeks. If it keeps hanging around, you don't have enough flow and your filter is not powerful enough. Looking at the pictures, it seems to like the bottom of your tank so redirect or increase the flow. You should be able to see a gentle swaying on the plants even on the bottom.
 
There's a slight sway to the E. tenellus (the grassy plant at the bottom) is that ok? And the diatoms also like the back glass of the tank, it's where it originally started
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. In fact it now likes the whole of my tank, especially the heater lol. I'll do a deep clean next time I do a water change, hopefully it'll go away soon
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. Thank you snazy.
 
The purigen arrived today after ordering over the weekend (thank you AquaEssentials!). I removed the carbon to make room for it, which turns out was slowing down the flow of the filter anyway (should've left it out when I started the filter to be honest). Will the existing diatoms disappear with the use of the purigen or will I have to remove them first then the purigen will prevent a reoccurence?
 
Well you'll need to remove it manually as purigen is like an ammonia filter, the ammonia causes algae but then it feeds of the rest of the nutrients so give it a clean, add purigen and keep an eye.
 
Well you'll need to remove it manually as purigen is like an ammonia filter, the ammonia causes algae but then it feeds of the rest of the nutrients so give it a clean, add purigen and keep an eye.

Purigen is to keep the water clear. You thinking of zeolite?
 
Hmmm, I'm still dosing the tank with ammonia until my fish are out of QT. Probably should've mentioned that earlier! So, should I even be using the purigen at the moment?
 
Are you getting nitrates? If so why are you dosing your tank with ammonia? The cycle wont die off.
 
Purigen doesn't soak up ammonia perse, it removes nitrogenous organisms in the water which lead to ammonia. So, it won't remove actual ammonia.
 

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