diatoms?

[fshfrk]

set up a 150 gal with a canopy. canopy has 4-21 inch & 2-12 inch power compacts, also 4 ft power glow flouresent lighting. home made w/d & emp 400. 2 power heads with oceanic sponges for more mech & bio. it's been running for 6 wks. golden diatoms every where. i have to clean glass every 3 or 4 days.hollyrock is covered. kind of ugly. will this turn into green algea? in the past i used uv steralizers to fix this but do not realy want to put one on this tank. pineapple trophs seem to like to eat this stuff.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: diatoms?

I have found that trophs and especially petros will graze the crap out of it!

But if you wanna get rid of it then cut your lighting down some and shorten the photo-period.....also if you have high nutrient content in your water source it will feed the algae so get that tested if you wanna try and remove it. I personally like the look but I blast my tank with lighting and keep the photo-period long(basically don't give it much though) and the algae is now green.

[fshfrk]

Re: diatoms?

ek-you were right. went in room where this tank is and a rock on the bottom of the tank was green. I swear it seemed like you could see it turning greener in a couple of minutes. also green spots on other rocks. looks better.

[nacra99]

Re: diatoms?

Diatoms are very common for new setups. Even at 6 weeks.
They should go away by themselves as the green stuff takes over.

like ek said.. if you want to reduce the algae, have a look at your nutrient level and see if it needs to be fixed.

[fshfrk]

Re: diatoms?

nutrient level? are you talking about testing for ammo,nitrIte & nitrAte?

[nacra99]

Re: diatoms?

nutrient level? are you talking about testing for ammo,nitrIte & nitrAte?

yep... and phosphates

[fshfrk]

Re: diatoms?

thanks, I'll test phosphates.