friekin' diatom blooms again.

[dclegern]

I know I'm a bit anal about this tank, but this brownish-green (assumed diatom) muck on the glass and substrate is driving me crazy.
It's gone for weeks, then bammmm!! it's back again.

any ideas outside of more water changes to chill this out?
am I over feeding? over dosing? aaaaaargh!

[Europhyllia]

have you changed anything? rearranged rock? added new rock? added a new sump? anything?

[dclegern]

everything is set up nice. only 6 fish in 70 gallon w/ 15 gallon sump.
plenty of LR, filters in place, skimmer, adequate water flow, and about an 8% water change each week.
with a loss of 1/2 gallon a day-top of with RO.

and I don't think i overfeed. or overdose!!

I did however rearrange a few things in the CC bed, but the filter caught most of that......

Hhhhhmmmm!!!

[Europhyllia]

rearranging -that's what did it. Just got to wait it out.
Other things to try:
GFO
reduced light
prayer
carbon
polyfilter
purigen
time

[kkiel02]

Phosban works wonders on diatoms. Especially with a reactor. Phosban will remove silicates which diatoms use for their shells and phosphates which I believe they use to grow/spread.

[rabadanmarco]

i belive diatoms feed on silicates. make sure no foreign plastic stuff is being placed anywhere in the aquarium..... http://www.petplace.com/fish/how-to-fight-those-darn-diatoms-algae/page1.aspx

[dclegern]

tried a few of your sug's.
along with cleaning and slight water change......looks good so far!
Thanks.
I've always had an issue with this. all readings good, but still bammm!! a bloom!!!
I may mess with things too much.

[kkiel02]

i belive diatoms feed on silicates. make sure no foreign plastic stuff is being placed anywhere in the aquarium..... http://www.petplace.com/fish/how-to-fight-those-darn-diatoms-algae/page1.aspx

This is what caused my last little bloom. I added a eggcrate cage around my brain that my blenny was eating. I just switched my reactor from carbon to phosban and it was clear within a day or two. That reactor was one of the best $50(I had to buy a little pump also) ive spent thus far.

[dclegern]

caused by you adding the eggcrate? or that you stirred things up in the process?

[kkiel02]

It was from the eggcrate as I had just sawed it. I rinsed it before I put it in but Im sure silicates were still released at first.

[Europhyllia]

eggcrate contain silicates?

[kkiel02]

I figured the plastic had silicates.