Ditaoms and Nitrates Uncontrollable?

[justahobby]

My 14 gal biocube has been battling nitrates and diatoms for about a month now. Coinciding with the death of a fish and addition of LR in place of the old bio balls. My bioload was one dartfish and some softies. The dartfish disappeared just like a seahorse, and 6 line wrasse before it. Since then I have added 1 turbo, 3 nerites, and a handful of ceriths. I wonder if that bottom filter compartment has a stash of dead fish? The tank has been emptied of all life (except snails) until I can get my tank back. I turned the lights off for 72 hours and it helped immensely until diatoms grew back in a few days. I did the big WC afterwards and continue good husbandry but cannot get the nitrates down or the diatoms to ease up.

[Joshua]

I wouldn't say uncontrollable. I have a 14 gallon Oceanic cube that I run bare bottom for the last 18 months or so. I don't do any sort of water tests, but whenever the algae starts growing I do a 50% water change and it's good for a while. All I have in there is a RBTA, crabs and snails, and some zoas and a cactus coral (sorry I forget the actual name) though. I do feed the anemone.

[FireWater]

Check under the filter compartment and under the bioball tray for detritus and leftover food. In my BC29 I had to pull the bottom trays out periodically to siphon the bottoms of those compartments out - food and waste always made their way in. I also had more than one fish jump the back wall into those chambers.

[justahobby]

You don't feed the coral? I'm going to dismantled the false back and take a siphon tube to it. I'll let y'all know what I find.

[Joshua]

You don't feed the coral?

My corals only eat light. :)

[mikedelgado]

I removed my sandbed and replaced it with rubble where the glass was visable. Since then I have seen a 95% reduction of diatoms. I wipe the glass maybe once a week. and there are usually only a couple of small light patches. Does anyone know what I can feed my lawnmower blennie?He looks skinny since the reduction of daitoms

[Kristy]

We've never seen our lawnmower blenny eat anything but algae, BUT we have a tail spot blenny in our small tank (cutest little guy!) and noticed that when we feed flake, he likes to eat the green flakes. He will spit out the red ones, only eats the green ones. So, you might try flake... we use Aqueon marine flakes. Hope that helps...

[justahobby]

I took apart every compartment I could, couldn't get to the one underneath the filter. Lots of dirt. I am waiting for it to clear up before I retest the nitrates. I'm not really wanting take the sand out, but I may try adding a sump for more water capacity. It's a shame I didn't figure on the false back being such a breeding ground for gunk.

[FireWater]

I had the same problem that you are describing and that is what led me to pull the false back apart. The tray under the filter was siliconed in and a pain to remove. I thought I broke it when it finally came off. It was amazing what kind of nasty gunk came out of the bottom in the back. After I cleaned the back bottom and kept up with the cleaning about once a month the nitrates were kept in control. I also did about a 5gln water change each week when I had my BC29. Don't forget to pull the pump out and clean it well also - it was a trap for the gunk that made it by the bioball chamber.