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Silicates causing diatoms?

Goose157

Goose157

Member
Joined
11 Feb 2018
Messages
138
Location
Derbyshire
hi all,
Well i am fighting the diatom battle!
Research online states many factors.... silicates being on the list......
Well probably foolishly i have used this in my tank.....(2 inch layer of argos playsand)
At the moment i have great flow - approx 20 x ! (Jbl 1902 - spraybar) in a 20 gallon 90 l tank.
5 hrs a day 1 watt per gallon light
Co2 2 hrs on before lights on.
Co2 1 hr off before light out.
Ei dose as per instructions...(10 ml per 50 l) alternate macro / micro
1 rest day from Ei then the next day a 50% water change weekly.
And diatoms galore.....
Are the silicates the cause of my wows??
Starting to think it might be time to take down and reboot this tank?? Perhaps use some proper substrate??
Any help appreciated...
Chris
 
Hi
Argos playsand has nothing to do with your diatom outbreak.I have72l low tech tank with it and never had major issues with any algae in it.I started with mature filter,high plant mass(including flaters to block light from my 55w pll lamp with 4800 lumens),regular water changes and ferts and low bioload(2 asselus puffer babies and 5 fully grown amano shrimp)
Diatoms are not difficult algae to get rid off.Its easily scrubbed off and shrimp,snails and ottos love to eat it.It sounds like new tank imbalance to me.
Regards Konsa
 
Goose157 said:
Research online states many factors.... silicates being on the list....
Click to expand...

Silicates are not a trigger for diatoms. If they were, all of us, in all tanks would have a constant diatom outbreak. They are required for diatoms to survive but besides that the issue lies somewhere else. We can't remove silicates from our tanks. The level of silicates is irrelevant, as long as there's some....which each tank has. The trigger lies elsewhere...

Diatoms are due to "new tank syndrome", i.e. ammonia levels.....plus light. The issue will resolve itself in a couple of months when the tank matures more. By then you'd need to clean it or it will turn green eventually(meaning colonised by other algae and micro-organisms)
 
Goose157 said:
hi all,
Well i am fighting the diatom battle!
Research online states many factors.... silicates being on the list......
Well probably foolishly i have used this in my tank.....(2 inch layer of argos playsand)
At the moment i have great flow - approx 20 x ! (Jbl 1902 - spraybar) in a 20 gallon 90 l tank.
5 hrs a day 1 watt per gallon light
Co2 2 hrs on before lights on.
Co2 1 hr off before light out.
Ei dose as per instructions...(10 ml per 50 l) alternate macro / micro
1 rest day from Ei then the next day a 50% water change weekly.
And diatoms galore.....
Are the silicates the cause of my wows??
Starting to think it might be time to take down and reboot this tank?? Perhaps use some proper substrate??
Any help appreciated...
Chris
Click to expand...

Oh bugger so sorry to hear this Goose! I was hoping my advise might of helped... is your lighting at the lowest setting/level possible? Silicates don’t cause diatoms, there’s lots of reasons to come to this that somebody might expand on. It is common knowledge that diatoms appear in bear bottomed tanks and lots of peeps with sandy bottoms never get them...

Kind regards
Matt


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Matty123 said:
Oh bugger so sorry to hear this Goose! I was hoping my advise might of helped... is your lighting at the lowest setting/level possible? Silicates don’t cause diatoms, there’s lots of reasons to come to this that somebody might expand on. It is common knowledge that diatoms appear in bear bottomed tanks and lots of peeps with sandy bottoms never get them...

Kind regards
Matt


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Hi Matt - your advice did help....but i am like you a perfectionist!! Lol....sends me bonkers seeing the brown stuff appearing a little still and i have trying to really get to the bottom of it!!
My tank is a lot better now .... but i feel like like i am just a mistake away from another bad attack so all the info methods i can learn the better....
All the best Chris
 
There is thread somewhere about silicates if anyone can give you a link? A 50 percent water change once a week ,try to increase water changes to maybe every other day with a gentle sypthoning above the sand when you do it, if your time limited 20 or 30 percent changes with the 50% once a week.Diatoms often go as quickly as they appear so wouldnt redo your tank because of the sand
 
Hi all,
PARAGUAY said:
There is thread somewhere about silicates if anyone can give you a link?
Click to expand...
There are a few threads that explain the reasons why quartz (silicon dioxide (SiO2)) has nothing to do with diatom outbreaks. A lot of the stuff written on the web is designed to persuade the aquarist they want to buy a silicate remover.

Diatoms use orthosilic acids to build their frustules, and they are incredibly effective at finding them, pretty much all liquid water contains diatoms, including in the soil, large puddles etc.

I've got a pebble of <"Hebridean gneiss"> that is about 3,000,000,000 years old and quartz based, it hasn't dissolved, so why should the sand in your tank? The <"Danish Moler clay based media"> we use is made from diatom frustules and has built into a bed 60 meters thick, and was laid down 55,000,000 years ago.

Have a look at <"the CO2 algal cycle">, <"Causes and removal....">, <"Diatoms my facts"> etc.

cheers Darrel
 
New tank syndrome not silicates. Cause is far too much light in a cycling tank, allowing diatoms to take hold.

I have had them twice. First when I set my tank up, got impatient after many weeks and turned reflectors round on my T8 tubes and with in a day or two diatoms everywhere. Cured by wiping, water changes and Otto's who scoffed the lot.

Second time when I moved to T5 tubes, got impatient and put reflectors and increased light period and BANG diatoms...scoffed by Otto's again.
 
ian_m said:
New tank syndrome not silicates. Cause is far too much light in a cycling tank, allowing diatoms to take hold.

I have had them twice. First when I set my tank up, got impatient after many weeks and turned reflectors round on my T8 tubes and with in a day or two diatoms everywhere. Cured by wiping, water changes and Otto's who scoffed the lot.

Second time when I moved to T5 tubes, got impatient and put reflectors and increased light period and BANG diatoms...scoffed by Otto's again.
Click to expand...
I started my 4 tube t5 on all tubes on,the lovely redition they give ha ha,soon learned too much light . At the moment raised 12" above on two tubes, maybe the OP could consider Ottos
 
pepedopolous said:
Any rocks in the tank? If yes, have you boiled them?
Click to expand...
ian_m said:
New tank syndrome not silicates. Cause is far too much light in a cycling tank, allowing diatoms to take hold.

I have had them twice. First when I set my tank up, got impatient after many weeks and turned reflectors round on my T8 tubes and with in a day or two diatoms everywhere. Cured by wiping, water changes and Otto's who scoffed the lot.

Second time when I moved to T5 tubes, got impatient and put reflectors and increased light period and BANG diatoms...scoffed by Otto's again.
Click to expand...
thank all for this info....
My next purchase when i can find any will be 4-6 otto’s .....
Last week when at my lfs they had none in stock....just my luck...!
Cheers Chris
 
So just finished a big water change - removed a mass of growth , scraper off the brown stuff (not actually too much, but still bugging me!), moved my small power head to give a little bit more agitation...
Sucked up the detritus.put some tapsafe water back in...removed the floaty bits....added 20 ml macro salts.....now just sitting with a cuppa... looking forward to when the reduced lighting turns on about 2pm - 7pm.....
Lol this is painful !!
Can’t wait till i get another tank...
Cheers Chris
 
Goose157 said:
So just finished a big tchange - removed a mass of growth , scraper off the brown stuff (not actually too much, but still bugging me!), moved my small power head to give a little bit more agitation...
Sucked up the detritus.put some tapsafe water back in...removed the floaty bits....added 20 ml macro salts.....now just sitting with a cuppa... looking forward to when the reduced lighting turns on about 2pm - 7pm.....
Lol this is painful !!
Can’t wait till i get another tank...
Cheers Chris
Click to expand...
Thats not allowed you have to see this out😉
 
Goose157 said:
scraper off the brown stuff
Click to expand...

You know, right now, over the last week I've been trying to grow me some diatoms....I've been blasting light between 12-16hrs a day! 7 days past and I have an extremely tiny bit of it on one of the anubias leaves, lol....So its not that easy to grow it when you want it. Diatoms is an important part of the fish's food chain...It's unsightly but certainly not harmful...and grazing fish love it.
 
sciencefiction said:
You know, right now, over the last week I've been trying to grow me some diatoms....I've been blasting light between 12-16hrs a day! 7 days past and I have an extremely tiny bit of it on one of the anubias leaves, lol....So its not that easy to grow it when you want it. Diatoms is an important part of the fish's food chain...It's unsightly but certainly not harmful...and grazing fish love it.
Click to expand...
I am very jealous! Lol
 
Goose157 said:
Ottos are firmly on my next purchase list!
Click to expand...

Guessing you have fish?

Are you testing no2 / no3?
If your still early on and nitrates are high, you might not want to add any extra fish.

There are various bacteria bombs that will help speed up the cycling process if nitrates are high.

Running the max amount of excel flourish can help but it's a bit of a balance between turning your plants to mush and killing the algae.

Best advice I was given was big cleaning sessions followed by big water changes.
 
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