Diatoms won’t go away!

[Milkie789]

For a while I have had a few struggles with my freshwater aquarium. In the past I had issues with general hardness as my water source had absolutely no mineral content and it led to a lot of fish loss, especially since my local pet store had an extremely high water hardness level. I eventually found out about Seachem equilibrium which solved the issue. The only problem left was that, since the beginning, my aquarium has been covered with a brown film which I discovered were diatoms. For over a year I have tried to find ways to get rid of them but have had no success. I was told that it was most likely caused by excess nutrients in my aquarium and the only solution would be to increase water changes, introduce plants, or constantly scrub it off of every surface in the tank. I followed these suggestions and purchased some java fern as they were cheap and easy to keep alive but it eventually led to a second problem. A few months after buying my java fern, I noticed that the old leaves had pinholes and were browning and the new sprouts weren’t growing very fast. Part of the problem was that I had a potassium deficiency so I started adding Seachem potassium to my aquarium. It solved the browning and pinholes but all of my new leaves are still barely growing. Its been a few months now since I started adding Seachem potassium and I still can‘t get them to grow. On top of that, my diatom problem hasn’t changed at all and I am still scraping them off of surfaces weekly. Im thinking I might need a new light as mine is one of those cheap colour changing ones off of amazon and is probably not the best for plant growth. Basically what I am seeing is that the diatoms are taking up all the nutrients in the aquarium because my java fern don't have enough light in order to use the nutrients in my tank. The reason I haven’t bought a proper light yet is because I have spent so much money in the past on fish supplies and I’m not 100% sure if my light is even the main problem in the first place. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Some additional Info:
Aquarium Size = 30gal
Nitrate = between 0-20ppm
Nitrite/ammonia/chlorine = 0ppm
PH = 8.4
GH = 150
KH = 300 or more (cant tell because its so high)
Stocking: 2 Congo tetras, 2 black skirt tetras, 7 glow light tetras and 2 guppies.

 

[gwand]

I got rid of my diatoms by limiting the amount of light the tank received and frequent water changes. I keep my aquarium light on for 4 hours per day. The tank is in the kitchen across from a large window and receives natural light throughout the day. The plants in the tank are doing well, Java fern, Amazon sword, anubias.

 

[BigBen1989]

Just reduce the photo period a bit, and keep on top of cleaning it off. Is it fairly new?

 

[Byron]

There are several issues referenced in post #1. Rather than going into them, perhaps you could provide some clarification.

First, water parameters. You talk about soft water, and adding Equilibrium, and then the numbers for the GH, KH and pH are very high. The fish you mention however are all soft water. What is the GH,KH and pH of your tap water? You might get these on the website of the water authority if you are on municipal water. Or you can test. Remember for pH you ned to out-gas the CO2 by letting a glass of fresh water stand 24 hours. This is not needed for tank water. But we need to know the source water numbers here.

You said the store has hard water...how do you know this? Are they in your same area? Do they add something, and if so, what? Do you have the actual GH?

Re the plants, are you using any comprehensive/complete fertilizer, or just Equilibrium and potassium?

Diatoms are most frequent when the tank's biiological system is not yet established. This is not the same as cycled, they are two very different things. And any substance added to the tank water can affect the chemistry and biological system. We need to sort this out.

Light is obviously involved, can you provide any data on this? And a photo of the entire tank would show us the extent of the plants, another important factor in algae issues.

 

[becky412]

Okay, I have a diatom problem. I have 3 tanks - 36, 55, 65. All tanks have been set up for over 1 year. The 55 and 36 have cannister filters and 65 has a Tidal 110 and in tank filter. 55 and 36 have 2 wave makers each on opposite sides of tanks and at 2 different levels. the 65 has one wave maker opposite the in tank filter. I do 50% water changes every 7-10 days. All my lights are on timers and only on for 6 hours at a time. I feed every other day. There are BN pleco and SAM in each tank along with the Angel fish. I finally dove into the live plant pool and I love the look of the live plants, but honestly, I do not feel I had this problem when I used artificial plants and I have had fish tanks for decades including salt. Is there anything other than a phosphate remove that can be done? PLEASE, do not say RO, I do not have the money, time or place for it. I am on well water. Attached is a picture of my phosphate water test sample for my 55 gallon which is the worse. The phosphate test shows water from tap versus tank after 1 week post vacuuming and pulling all decoration and rinsing. Also attached is a pic of the 55 gallon (the worse one) after one week of maintenance. I do not clean my filters when I do a water/substrate maintenance. Although today I am going to pull all the filters, clean and put back in service along with the vacuum and water change. This diatom crap gets me down and makes me want to bail out of something that I used to get so much pleasure out of.

 

[gwand]

I got rid of my diatom problem by having lights out for a solid week.

 

[becky412]

I got rid of my diatom problem by having lights out for a solid week.

Okay, what about your plants and natural light that comes in windows? And if they went away, have you seen amy evidence of it possibly returning?

 

[gwand]

My plants survived the blackout: Java ferns, anubias, Amazon sword. The diatoms never returned. My water temperature set at 70F Because that tank has White Cloud Mountain minnows and Celestial Pearl danios that prefer cooler water.

 

[becky412]

Thanks, unfortunately, Angels like it a bit warmer.