Diatoms Lights out !

[Reefaholic]

Hi Everyone,

I would like to hear any results/experiences on how to beat diatoms. I been trying to beat diatoms for about a Month now. The tank is a 30g with a 10g sump. I'm running Carbon,GFO, Chaeto, Polyfilter and an oversized skimmer. I siphon and scrub the rock and it will disappear for a couple days but it comes right back. I have cut down on feedings to twice a week. I have mostly LPS and Rock flower nems,1 Royal gramma and 1 watchman Goby. The tank has been running for about 3 years now with weekly water changes, using RO/DI water with a TDS reading of 0-3.

The plan is to scrub all the rocks,shyphon, water change, and do a 3 day black out. Any suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated.

I have also heard of people dosing Hydroxen peroxide, while the lights are out.

 

[GugsJr]

How long has the tank been running and what are your water parameters

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[Reefaholic]

- - - Updated - - -

How long has the tank been running and what are your water parameters

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Running for a little over 3 years
Salinity 1.024
Temp 78-79
Ph 7.8
Alk 7.5
Nitrate 0
Phosphate .03-.04
Cal 350
Mag 1250

 

[GugsJr]

I'd raise your nitrates to 2 - 5ppm

I'd also raise your CA to 420 -425

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[Reefaholic]

Anyone else have any experience with this?

 

[maidia]

I been fighting almost 4 months, do this do that and final beat it with 10 days light off and dose Hydroperoxide. It been gone for month now and hope not come back. Oh, I also run carbon thru reactor after 10 days.

 

[Reefaholic]

I been fighting almost 4 months, do this do that and final beat it with 10 days light off and dose Hydroperoxide. It been gone for month now and hope not come back. Oh, I also run carbon thru reactor after 10 days.

Did you do 10 consecutive days with the lights off? How did your coral react to that? Also how much peroxide where you dose per gallon? Daily?

 

[maidia]

Did you do 10 consecutive days with the lights off? How did your coral react to that? Also how much peroxide where you dose per gallon? Daily?

10 days off light only turn on light from 4:30PM - 5:30PM for feed the fish. I dose 30ml daily around 8PM for 120 gallon total system. Corals are all fine.

 

[Slim64]

I cut my light cycle to 3 hrs a day, stopped water changes and dosed 12ml of hydrogen peroxide a day for 2 weeks. (120gal) tank.

 

[Reefaholic]

I cut my light cycle to 3 hrs a day, stopped water changes and dosed 12ml of hydrogen peroxide a day for 2 weeks. (120gal) tank.

Sounds great Thank You for the reply I will try and run something similar.

 

[Bommie]

I have also been battling this for a couple months now. It goes away using chemi clean but then comes back a couple days later. I'm gonna try cutting back on my light cycle and reducing the intensity. See if that works.

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[Reefaholic]

Quick update: I took off the GFO and Carbon, and the diatoms seamed to be slowing down. Also the phosphates went up slightly and Nitrate is reading around 5ppm.

Next I Scrubbed and shyphoned out as much of the diatoms as possible and that seemed to make a huge difference. I did this 2 days back to back as well as blowing off the rock daily and turning up the flow of my power head. So far I would say the diatoms have been reduced by a total of 95%.