Diatoms help please.

[SteveCGY]

So I received some like rock with coral on it. This person had let there tank go to **** so I rescued what I could. But no for the past week my diatoms are just crazy. Everyday I wipe the glass stir the sand and blow of the rocks but by the next day it is back covering everything again. Is there anything I could do or buy to help this. Or should I just wait it out and let it run it's course. Any help would be great.

[canadianbudz604]

There is a couple types of snail that will eat the diatoms. Sound like u may have had a mini cycle. How much rock did u add and in what time frame?

[SteveCGY]

Yes I have added trouchus snails, my lawnmower blenny also like to chomp on it and for some reason my dotty back is constantly picking up the sand and spitting it out. Looks like he's trying to eat it too lol. I would say I added around 20lbs of rock with 10 green mushrooms 2 small devils hand and 1 medium size Kenya and 2 tiny like offspring Kenya.

[SteveCGY]

So my diatoms is at an all time high and just covering my rocks in the thick film. I don't have the means to do a water change today but should I blow them all off and stir the sand bed and see what my skimmer can get or just leave it and let it run it's course. I don't want my corals to get over run by it but at the same time I don't want to blast it all off then have really bad water that things start to die. Any thoughts or suggestions for this?

[jason604]

What I did when my diatom went nuts was take a hard tip toothbrush and rubber band it to a stick and rub it across my rock/sand/glass and the algae just sticks right to it. Then just take brush out n wiggle in a bucket of water. Might take long but it helps. Soon it will stabilize. Getting a sifter fish helps a ton for dirty sand.

[mrhasan]

Are you using tap water?

[SteveCGY]

No I was using demineralized bottled water from sobeys

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by SteveCGY

No I was using demineralized bottled water from sobeys

You might be better off getting RODI water from concept. Many thinks that diatom = nutrient but actually, silicate is the main culprit for diatoms. That's what feeds the diatom; nutrients can play some role but if you not having hair algae and only diatom, that means your tank has silicate. While starting the tank, the sand tends to release some into the water but it goes away within a month as you change water and the silicate depletes. No snails can out compete diatom if there's silicate in the water. They can eradicate it if sand is the only source but if its water, you gotta repair that yourself. You might wanna test the TDS of the water you are putting in. If TDS is something like 10+, that might be the silicate source.

[Madreefer]

Originally Posted by SteveCGY

No I was using demineralized bottled water from sobeys

What???
Your better off using water from those u full places like Canadian Springs. Just do water changes for now and don't fiddle in your tank.