# Causes and removal of Diatomous Algae - Brown Algae



## REDSTEVEO (3 Nov 2014)

Hello All,

Just to add to the general confusion over the cause and removal of Brown or Diatomous algae, as I am still having some issues i looked and found this link below. It goes on about silicates again being the cause. I know Clive has blown this theory away on previous threads, (which I am now reading again)!!!!

http://www.oscarfish.com/article-home/water/82-diatoms.html

Has anyone found the golden solution to getting rid of this horrible stuff. My Eleocharis along the front bottom of the tank is covered in it

I siphon it off every day and its back again the next morning, exasperating. Tried blackouts, less light, more light, less flow, more flow, less Co2, more Co2, less ferts, no ferts, lots of ferts, 2 x big water changes per week, small water changes every day, no water changes.

Getting to the point where I might even take the Eleocharis out!

Cheers,

Steve.


----------



## dw1305 (3 Nov 2014)

Hi all,
I'd just wait and the Diatoms will disappear from view, you will still have Diatoms, because nearly all sites with liquid water (including the soil, moss on tree trunks, glacier melt pools etc.) will contain Diatoms.  

All the stuff in the article about silicic acid is totally wrong. Quartz is silicon dioxide based, but it is one of the hardest naturally occurring substances and some of the sediments containing it (like the Baltic granite that out-crops in Stockholm etc) are over a billion years old. If it had any degree of solubility how has it lasted over 1,000,000,000 years?Sand is silicon based purely because it is so much harder than everything else. The same with Diatom frustules, they are also silicon dioxide based. The author says they've collected into huge deposits in the sea, then he tells you they are soluble.........

The orthosilicic acid that Diatoms process into the frustule only forms at very high pressure in the deep oceans, and arrives back at the surface in ocean up-welling zones, causing Diatom blooms, but this has no relevance to us.

Have a look here for the thread you need <"*Diatoms - My Facts - page 3."*>.

cheers Darrel


----------

