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Anyone got any advice on Algae?

Ryan Young

Ryan Young

Member
Joined
17 Jun 2015
Messages
168
Hi all,
Basically, I have had my 30l nano cube running for around a month- 6 weeks and my tank is being attacked by brown algae which im guessing is diatoms. However I have been doing regular water changes around 50% weekly (give or take) keep scrubbing it off my rocks and trying to get rid of it from my plants.

Does anyone have an idea on if it is normal to stay for over a month and if there is anything I could do to combat it as its really annoying me now and cannot get it off the monte carlo due to such fine leaves.
Sorry for the water drops, was finishing cleaning it but wanted to ask this question first.
ThanksIMG_0684.JPG

(Also I am getting rid of the mini Co2 kit as it is sh*t and have a full kit just need to buy a bottle).
 
Evening friend,
There´s a certain myth in this hobby that Diatoms come always from new assemblies.

Well.. in the past i used to have your issue. That was my major issue in all tanks i made. And no matter how much watter changes i did it kept always coming and coming.

So, i decide to buy an Osmose system, and took off all filters that come along with it and install only one Sio2/3 filter removal with the final stage.

Start a new assembly and guess what? Almost nothing of diatoms. Almost..

In the meantime of all my experiments in this period i was always testing my Sio2/3 levels from my tap water. The test couldn´t even point a level cause silicates were so high from tap water that the test didn´t reach those values. With one Sio2/3 filter i reduced a lot but still Silicates were in presence in the test. So i decide to put a second Sio2/3 filter.

By the time i put the second Sio2/3 filter, i measure the water coming from the Osmose and it was clean! No sign of silicates at all. marvelous!

Start a new assembly and no sign at all of Diatoms. I repeat: No sign at all. It was my first tank where i never saw a thing of Diatoms. Not even a blink of an eye!

So your case might be Silicates and so if you´re doing WC from tap water you are always inserting Silicates in the tank and providing FOOD to diatoms.

I´m almost shure that this is your case.

Diatoms = Silicates.

Big hug
 
Diatoms are possibly caused by silicate in new tanks AND ammonia AND too much light. It will be scoffed by Ottos and some shrimps.

However, reduce light level, I notice you have two very bright lights, reduce light time, frequent water changes using something like Prime (which will remove ammonia as well) and patience is all that is needed.
 
As far as RO water goes, I have not had diatomes in my past tanks to this degree and have heard people having mixed thoughts on using RO in freshwater as it can be 'too pure'. My plan is to do a 4-7 day cycle without light.
Im going to keep checking my ammonia, nitrate, ph levels etc. and address them.
In terms of using tap water... Paulo's solution would work but as I said, skeptical about using RO water as I have very hard tap water. Is it a good idea to use water from my cycled/ established tank instead of tap water as that should be more or less stable?
The only thing is that, isn't that just putting dirty water into a different tank?
 
Ryan Young said:
As far as RO water goes, I have not had diatomes in my past tanks to this degree and have heard people having mixed thoughts on using RO in freshwater as it can be 'too pure'
Click to expand...
Pure RO water is indeed "too pure" for anything to live in it or even to drink to that matter. Most people will either do a combination of mixing it with tapwater or re-mineralising it with additives you can buy to put the essential electrons etc back in.

My first port of call would be one of the lights off or both reduced to start with. Adding some water from the other tank maybe beneficial, "dirty has a few different meanings. There maybe some organic waste in the water from the old water but biologically it's sounder than the water out of the tap in so far as it's full of the helpful bacteria you are trying to promote in the new set up. A lot of people will "seed" new setups with water from old tanks or some old filter material. With the length of time the tanks been running it wouldn't do any harm to put some in to give it a little kick start. Fish stores actually sell the stuff in bottles but you have a free supply in your old tank.

Right now you have drinking water, high lighting and plants that haven't settled in yet. Some thing’s going to grow in there and the plants have more needs than the algae.
 
ian_m said:
Diatoms are possibly caused by silicate in new tanks AND ammonia AND too much light. It will be scoffed by Ottos and some shrimps.
Click to expand...

I would second this. I had diatoms in my new 80L tank, even with frequent 50% water changes (daily WC initially for first 2 weeks, and alternate days for the next 4 weeks). Once my tank was cycled, I added 4 Ottos and 2 SAEs, **POOF** diatoms were gone within two days.
 
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