Diatom Bloom

I am cycling my 75 gallon now and over the past 3 days I have had a huge diatom bloom. They are covering everything from the rocks and sand to the power cords for the power heads. I am using RO/DI water and I tested for phosphates and they are none and I am running a skimmer and a sump. What is causing the diatom bloom and is there a quick fix? I have been brushing the rocks off and the sand every day so it does not build up to bad.

 

Its part of the cycling phase. They will go away on its on. Once my tank fully cycled i added a CUC and they helped out along the way. Don't worry, its normal.

 

Alright thanks, I plan on ordering a CUC from reefcleaners once it is cycled. I was just wondering because I did not see this bad of a bloom in my 45.

 

I had a 110 that did the same thing. Everything in the tank was covered in brown. It went away rather quickly as I remember.

 

My tank went through a small diatom bloom but since all the rock/sand came from an established tank, it was rather small. I imagine with new sand and uncycled rock, it would be worse but still normal. I picked up a few hermits to help keep it from being unsightly.

 

I used all base rock and new sand. My diatoms lasted about 5 weeks and seemed like alot to me. But they went away as quickly as they came and never came back. I believe that they feed off of silicants and light, and once they have consumed all the silicants they die off? So I would just wait it out. If you dont have any corals you could cut back on you lights.

 

I had a horriblel bloom also when cycling my new tank, I left the lights off completely and got a very strong clean up crew from reef cleaners, mine lasted around 3 weeks and then went away as quickly as they came