Diatoms are good?

[dnjan]

I recently had a discussion with a colleague in which he explained that diatoms are a major food source for zooplankton. He went on to describe how wonderful diatoms were - how they were good at utilizing nutrients, how they were especially high in fatty acids, etc.

Since many corals consume zooplankton, and since I am kind of an
"if a=b and b=c, then a=c" kind of guy, I figure that I should be promoting diatom growth for the good of my corals (both as food and to reduce nutrients in the tank).

I recently re-read Randy's article:
Silica in Reef Aquariums,
and have decided that I should be dosing silica.

Comments?

 

[ReefferMan]

very interesting, keep us ep to date on the progress...thoughts ect

 

[Reeferdude]

Water which is too pure can sustain no life...

 

[DonW]

Water which is too pure can sustain no life...

Yes but most if any will ever achieve such pure water in a closed system. I wouldnt dose anything to encourage diatoms in a closed system.

Don

 

[ReefferMan]

keep it natural as possible......no peeks and valleys......simple is best....im a lazy reefferman..

 

[dnjan]

very interesting, keep us ep to date on the progress...thoughts ect

I ordered the waterglass from the site Randy recommended, so I guess the experiment starts in a week or two.

Since waterglass is high pH, I should just be able to add it to the kalkwasser in my topoff tank, correct?

 

[Jobiwan]

Just come up to Whidbey and get some of our fine silicate laden water, before I came to my senses and got an RO unit I had an incredible diatom culture, unfortunately it totally took over,perhaps the levels up here are higher than the recommended dose, interesting article. My bloom didn't seem to help my corals, .but that may because there was a smothering situation, I think your biggest challenge in this experiment will be controlling the amount of diatoms that develop, hard to do in a closed system I should think, I'll follow this with interest, good luck.

 

[dnjan]

I am wondering if part of the reason many people get diatom blooms early on in their tank's history is that they do not have the diversity of zooplankton in place to comsume the diatoms.

I will be conducting my experiment on a relatively mature tank (running continuously for over 7 years). I suspect that the zooplankton in the tank are well established, and should easily adapt to an increase in food supply.

Waterglass should arrive next week ...

 

[ollie51]

i recently through no choice of my own had to replace my lights on my tank in doing so i found 1 of my bulbs were cracked so i went with what came with the fixture i had 250 14000k hqi and new ones were 250 10000k after a couple of days my tank started to get covered in what i think is diatoms brownish stringy bubble laiden stuff ive been doing water changes weekly but its still in force have had no problem like this before everything has been fine what should i do ? any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

[azgard1]

i recently through no choice of my own had to replace my lights on my tank in doing so i found 1 of my bulbs were cracked so i went with what came with the fixture i had 250 14000k hqi and new ones were 250 10000k after a couple of days my tank started to get covered in what i think is diatoms brownish stringy bubble laiden stuff ive been doing water changes weekly but its still in force have had no problem like this before everything has been fine what should i do ? any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

"brownish stringy bubble laiden stuff"
This sounds like dinoflagettes not diatoms.

 

[dnjan]

Agree on the dinos.

 

[acrylic_300]

I get some diatoms on the glass from feeding Amino Acids. I don't mind it because it dusts off easily with the mag float and my bristle tooth tang loves it (its mouth prints are all over the glass).

If I want to lower nutrients I can run a mechanical filter for a few hours after cleaning the glass; however, I usually just let it drift through the system.