I still can't get rid of my diatoms problem, i've removed my bioballs this last week and am hopping this is going to help, but at he minute it seems to be getting worse. If i can't get it to clear up in the next two months i'm going to sell the lot. I really don't want to cause i love my reef but it is so depressing coming home from work every day to see a tank full of brown slime..... If any one has had a servere case like this or any one knows anything about it plese help me as i'm at the end of my tether.....
diatoms still a problem
- Thread starter charlie h
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Sherman
Has Met Willis
Time and patience, Charlie... time and patience.
The bioballs were probably part of the problem, adding nitrates to the water. However, it sounds like you removed all the bioballs at once, correct? If so, this will also forther exasperate the problem. The bioballs were the home of all sorts of denitrifying bacteria, and they've now been removed. Because of this, the aquarium chemistry and microbiology is going to teeter around a bit until it resettles back into equilibrium. This will take at least 2-6 weeks.
Your best bet right now is water changes. You want to keep the water as pristine as possible. And give your tank's microbiology load some time to catch up to the recent changes.
How old is the tank? What's in it as far as livestock?
The bioballs were probably part of the problem, adding nitrates to the water. However, it sounds like you removed all the bioballs at once, correct? If so, this will also forther exasperate the problem. The bioballs were the home of all sorts of denitrifying bacteria, and they've now been removed. Because of this, the aquarium chemistry and microbiology is going to teeter around a bit until it resettles back into equilibrium. This will take at least 2-6 weeks.
Your best bet right now is water changes. You want to keep the water as pristine as possible. And give your tank's microbiology load some time to catch up to the recent changes.
How old is the tank? What's in it as far as livestock?
Scooterman
Well-known member
What he said
bbehring
Well-known member
what's your water source, how much are you feeding and what food are you feeding? Skimmer? Waterchange frequency/amount? Also might look to incease flow in the display. Most diatom blooms are nutrient and/or loack of flow driven.
Krish
RF STAFF
Jason...You made a small typo. Bioballs were the home of nitrifying bacteria not de-nitrifying...No anaerobic zones are present in bio-balls (ie wet/dry environment) so no de-nitrfying bacteria there
Scooty...You're just as bad for agreeing :lol:
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Sherman
Has Met Willis
Don't you have anything better to do? Go set up another tank or something!
Thanks for the correction.
Thanks for the correction.
Krish
RF STAFF
LOL! $end $some fund$ then
On a side note, as mentioned, it will take time for things to balance out so no worries. I went through the same process when converting my wet/dry into a sump and removing the bio-balls and it took a while, but all worked out fine
treehugger
Well-known member
If you have a friend with an established tank nearby maybe you could borrow a scoop or two off of their sand bed. It helped slow my diatom problem when I set up a smaller tank and got thing cycling a bit faster.
Scooterman
Well-known member
Jason...You made a small typo. Bioballs were the home of nitrifying bacteria not de-nitrifying...No anaerobic zones are present in bio-balls (ie wet/dry environment) so no de-nitrfying bacteria there
So your saying the bacteria converts Nitrates to Nitrites but doesn't convert Nitrites to something less or non-toxic?
Treehugger, I'd just wait it out & basically do as mentioned above, just give it a little time and see what happens, normally it is part of cycling. Siphon as much as you can, make sure you have lots of flow everywhere you can & keep with the wc's.
Rod Buehler
Well-known member
Diatoms feed primarily on silicates. Are you using RO/DI, or just RO?
You mention slime.. When people mention slime in the same breath as diatoms, its usually dinoflagellites and not diatoms. Do your "diatoms" look like brown stringy snot with air bubbles trapped in them, or does it look more like a powdery dusting?
If its diatoms and your not using DI. I would start..
If its diatoms and the tank is less than 2 months old. I wouldn't worry and have a little patience
If its dinoflagellites, I wouldn't do any water changes.. I would keep the pH elevated with kalk drips, I would run carbon very aggressively and change it often. I would use filter floss to trap as much as possible and rinse the floss immediately
You mention slime.. When people mention slime in the same breath as diatoms, its usually dinoflagellites and not diatoms. Do your "diatoms" look like brown stringy snot with air bubbles trapped in them, or does it look more like a powdery dusting?
If its diatoms and your not using DI. I would start..
If its diatoms and the tank is less than 2 months old. I wouldn't worry and have a little patience
If its dinoflagellites, I wouldn't do any water changes.. I would keep the pH elevated with kalk drips, I would run carbon very aggressively and change it often. I would use filter floss to trap as much as possible and rinse the floss immediately
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You have hit the nail on the head.. it is exactly what i have got. when i've explained to my lfs before they have esured me it's diatoms.
Why should i stop doing water changes, wont this make things worse. I've also just found out that the ro water from my lfs has a nitrate reading of 15ppm and a phosphate reading of .15ppm. I'm not saying it's like this all the time but the last time i tested it, it was.
I've teated the silicates in my tank and they read 0
the more info. you can give me the more hope i'll have that i'll rid this horrible stage of reef keeping
Scooterman
Well-known member
Charlie, can you break down your tank for us some, trying to guess what you have isn't going to help. How old is your tank, what to you have in it, as in live rock, sand? Pumps, PH's? If it is new I'm guessing your trying to cycle it? It sounds like you have a unreliable source for water, I'd start with that & eliminate it & invest into a RO/DI unit, this will greatly help, also a TDS meter of some sort, start out with the basics then move on later when you get it figured out, any rushing won't help or sudden changes. Don't wast money n quick fixes until we are on the same page.
pitmam01
Blondie911
My tank is 6 months old and I have had a few of these. Brown looking sand...a good sandsifter will help stir things up until things clear up. Dark, slimy sand, I used a product by Blu Vet called Red Slime Control and it took care of it. Did a water change 2 days later. Haven't had it since. I know whatcha mean about it being depressing. Your tank looks great and then you look down and the sand looks like a frickin sewer. Hang in there, you'll get it dialed in!!!! I've never had any patience...........until this hobby!!!!!! Best of luck!!
billaweed
Stumped Irishman
Do you have a local Wal-Mart? They have Culligan Water stations that run through a RO/DI unit. 5 gallons for $1.65, then mix your own salt. Filters are regularly changed.
When I was getting my water at the LFS, I was having the same problems.
try getting some good water ..
mmkeeper
Well-known member
You can get a ro/di filter for $100 and not have to haul water and pay for it. You can test it on a regular basis. You would then have more control over your water.
Rod Buehler
Well-known member
Diatoms and dinoflagellites are two different things. Most say that Dinoflagellites will feed off of the (unnecessary?) trace metals in new salts, therefore no water changes. If dinoflagellites are what you have, I would run carbon aggressively (in a canister filter, where water is forced through the media... Not just a bag in the sump). Change the carbon every few days. I would keep a kalk DRIP going. If you're already dosing kalk, I would increase the evaporation (add a fan) to allow you to drip more kalk to help keep the pH elevated.. I would go to the nearest craft store to get some polyester pillow stuffing and I would cram that stuff into the overflows, and then take a turkey baster/powerhead to blow the dino's loose and into the pillow stuffing. throw away the pillow stuffing after a few hours. Its a tough battle, but you can win
Another option if you dont have many light loving corals is to shut the lights down for 3 days, and then bring them back on line slowly (3 hrs per day, adding an hour every other day).
Again, if you dont have dino's and do have diatoms, then treatment is much different
As for the Wal-Mart RO.. I have checked the TDS many times. Most of the stores have water that I wouldnt use. Getting your own is the best option. They can be pretty cheap, but stay away from the cheapest. Look for a unit that has Filmtec membranes, and Matrix carbon blocks. Make sure that the DI Is a standard 10" interchangable cartridge. Also stay away from the 100 GPD membranes. Most of them only have a 90% rejection rate whereas a 75 GPD or less will have a 98.8% rejection rate.
Break down of my tank....
My tank is about 8-9 months old. It is about 550 litres. I'm running two 250watt haliodes and two 54watt actinics. I have a turbofloat sl skimmer (aquamedic), I'm running an ocean runner 3500 back from my sump, a SEIO Super Flow Pump - M820 (3200 LPH), plus two maxi jet 1200. (i'm also waiting for a hydor korila 4 - from ebay). I've got a canister filter running in and out of my sump with carbon and phosguard in. I have one fall bag of fresh Aragonite Sand for the substrate. The live rock (60kg) is out of my old tank plus about 200 liters of the old water.
fish........
1 x yellow tang
1 x royal grammer
1 x coral buity
1 x algae blennie
1 x mandrine
2 x clowns
7 x cromis
1 x pink tailed trigger
Hope this will help you help me........... cause i sure need it
My tank is about 8-9 months old. It is about 550 litres. I'm running two 250watt haliodes and two 54watt actinics. I have a turbofloat sl skimmer (aquamedic), I'm running an ocean runner 3500 back from my sump, a SEIO Super Flow Pump - M820 (3200 LPH), plus two maxi jet 1200. (i'm also waiting for a hydor korila 4 - from ebay). I've got a canister filter running in and out of my sump with carbon and phosguard in. I have one fall bag of fresh Aragonite Sand for the substrate. The live rock (60kg) is out of my old tank plus about 200 liters of the old water.
fish........
1 x yellow tang
1 x royal grammer
1 x coral buity
1 x algae blennie
1 x mandrine
2 x clowns
7 x cromis
1 x pink tailed trigger
Hope this will help you help me........... cause i sure need it
DonW
R.I.P.
If you can get real rodi water then do not stop the water changes. Grocery store water is usually just RO or just Carbon filtered no rodi. Check with you lfs and have them check the water they are selling you. 15ppm out of a rodi filter system doesnt sound right, If you find that there water is truely 0 tds then do water changes and lots of them. Also what brand of salt are you using?
Don
Don
Scooterman
Well-known member
Well converted the 550 liters to about 145 gallons, that is a lot of water. I agree with Don on this & as mentioned, start off with getting a source of good water quality, this is first & foremost important. I can tell you now that the Turbo-floater is a nice skimmer for a tank about gallons or 1/4 the size of your tank, I had one & saying that from personal experience, It may be very efficient but that is a lot of water to process. I would stick to the water changes, get a turkey baster & blow the rocks throughly, If you have a sock filter from the sump drain use it & clean it frequently. Getting that extra flow will help suspend detritus & help move it to the sump, where If you use a sock it will catch most of it.
Thanks for all your help all of you. I'm now looking in to getting a 4 stage ro unit around 50GPD, (whats the difference between ro and ro/di) for the minute though i've got my fresh and salted water from another lfs and am now about to test that. (i'll tell you what the results are sortly.) I'm allso in the process of buying a ProfienSea BVS450 protein skimmer, i was just wondering if anyone has used, got or thought about getting oneand what they thought...
