Diatom Bloom

How long should the brown diatom be around for in a newly cycled tank? Its been about 10 days and its still coming back. Every night my star fish and crabs clean it up and I wake up to a sparkling clean tank but by mid day my pretty white sand has a brown film all the way acrossed it.... Just wondering if thats normal or if I need to do something differently. Thanks so much!

 

Mine has been going on several weeks. Each tank is different and the length of time you have diatoms is largely based on the amount of silicates in your tank. Once consumed you should begin seeing them less assuming you are not introducing more.

 

It takes time to deplete but when I got my Turbo snails they got rid of mine in 2 days. It may seem like a long time to get rid of it but my tank looked like someone dumped a thing of brownish paint into my tank.

 

Whats a Silicate?

 

Silicates

And likely it's not your cleanup crew cleaning it up in the middle of the night, but just the lack of light. Ours was the same way & we didn't have a cleanup crew at the time.

 

A more technical answer I've read is an ion containing silica bound with a metal.

The layman's reef tank answer is a compound/molecule (it has been years since chemistry ) that is present in sand and water that promotes diatom growth.

But, like the others have said, it will go away on its provided you do not keep on adding them to the tank (tap water, unfiltered water).


edit: there you go, Sushigirl's post above mine

 

Oh so tap water causes diatoms?? Theres my problem right there, i did my water change with tap water, I didnt realize it would be a problem. So what should I use to refill my tank when it evaporates? Thanks

 

Ro/di, distilled, or ro water. Preferably ro/di...

 

Yeah, your diatom bloom is probably just from using tap water. We supposedly have the 10th worst tap water in the country. I do not know how that is determined. Regardless, it beats boiling water from a river when you run out of water and need it .

Like nightster said, RO/DI is the best way to go. If you are unable to buy an RO/DI unit at the moment, you can use distilled water, RO water sold in front of supermarket in the machines, or buy some from the LFS.

If you do use tap water, just make sure you use water purifier to mitigate the harm done. Purified tap is still not good to use and most of us here discourage the use of tap water altogether.

Good luck and hope that helps.

 

I don't know that I'd trust the systems in front of grocery stores, LFS are likely more reliable. Either way, buy a low cost TDS meter and test ANY water you buy. It should read zero for any fresh water you put in your tank.