Brown/Diatom Algae in Nano Tank???

Ok so to keep this a relatively short post, the title explains it all....I have brown algae in my nano tank that seems to come back every week all over the walls....I have some nerites in tank to do some cleaning but as quickly as the brown algae comes back I would have to pack the tank full of nerites and I dont wanna do that....the bio load is small w/ only a red scooter blenny and a yellow nano goby along w/ the nerites, red & blue leg crabs, and a few cerith snails and a nassarius snail or two. I got a protein skimmer as well as a decent bio-wheel filter on there both of which are plenty big for the small 15 gallon. I know something is up in the water chemistry probably causing this and from looking in the ultimate nuisance algae thread i see that PODS are a good for taking care of the diatoms but does anyone have any other suggestions? The tank is small enough that I wouldnt want to run a phos-ban reactor so I want to see what you fellow 3Reefers can suggest;D

 

Ditch the bio-wheel on the filter (nitrate factory) and do water changes. That and your skimmer alone should be plenty for your small tank. Your problem will go away as soon as the nutrients are depleted. Only use r/o water

 

How long has the tank been set up flynhawaiianz?

if its diatoms they normally run their course until all the silicates are used up
they may stay around for longer if your using tap water?
typically for me ( it various from tank to tank and person to person) Diatoms come along between weeks 4 and 6 and are gone by weeks 10 - 12 - with no action at all on my part
I know what they are and why they are and I know they will go on their own accord

if its not a new set up and your not using tap water- then they might not be diatoms, might just be brown algae

a reactor is ideal for using GFO media- but you could also use it in your Hang on filter
its not as efficient used that way, but it does still work and will reduce your Phosphates
and thus in turn coupled with the manual removal you do at water changes, should eventually resolve the issue

Steve

 

If your using tap water its probably pretty high in phosphates. You should try to get a RO/DI machine

 

I thought the bio-wheels were "supposed" to be good? or thats what I heard at least and now that I have a few of you asking about RO/DI water, I have been using water from our house actually which comes from a well since I live in a subdivision in the country. OK now w/ that being said I have a question and hopefully someone can answer this....We get drinking water from like Kroger's (grocery store) & Wal-mart sometimes that comes from the machines in the store that goes through reverse osmosis, UV filtration, etc. so would that water be considered close to RO/DI or i shouldn't be using that water in my tanks even though we use it for drinking water. I figured that if the water was good enough for myself to be drinking that it was good/pure enough for my fish tanks? I used that water at one point and I felt that it almost made a algae bloom in both of my tanks but maybe I'm wrong

 

many people including myself have used water from the vending machines at supermarkets like Wal- Mart - I have never had any trouble as a result of using this, although if the filters are not changed frequently then there could be issues

if you are progressing to a 90 in the future - a RODI system for home would be ideal IMO

Steve

 

im going through the diatoms right now on my 29 gallon Bio cube. Its week 7-8 and the green "feathery" algae is really ugly and i hope it starves it self out soon. Good luck! I also am using the RO water from Walmart and i tested it and there is 0 nitrate, 0 phosphates so..... i would keep using it! i always test a batch of my water when i get alot. I am eventually going to get a RO/DI water setup for home. Good investment from what i gather. I wouldnt ditch the bio wheel if thats your only form of biological filtration? How much LR do you have? Maybe keep it running while planning something else! Do you have a Test Kit? YOU SHOULD

 

quick note on Bio-wheels. I have been fighting high nitrates for months. (60+) i wasnt getting anywhere untill i removed my bio wheel, and canister filter (which i cleaned weekly). down to about 10 now.

 

from what i am hearing that bio-wheels can be high in nitrates so I might have to look into somethin like a small canister filter for my nano tank then...any suggestions for a good filter for a nano tank? Also, I will go back to the RO/DI water then from Wal-mart and see what happens from there, hopefully i get some good results soon. I think I have at least 20 lbs of live rock in there give or take some but in my opinion i think it could use some more and I do have one test kit but it isnt to extensive but does test phosphates, nitrates, nitrites, etc. I could use another test kit for other tests and I will try to post a pic maybe tomorrow to so everyone can see what I am working with

 

Did a little research and was thinking of a fluval canister or a small eheim canister filter and anyone got any suggestions on a good in-home RO/DI system that I can keep in mind for the future?

P.S. Steve Right...the tank has been setup for about 10 months now