Filamentous diatoms?

[Raten Furlong]

Hello all, I need some help eradicating what I think is filamentous diatoms.....

Tank has low lighting (only 12w) and is 7 weeks old. Lights are currently on for 7 hours per day.

At first I had the typical diatom phase which coated the rocks, wood, plants etc. Then it turned into a stringy brown hair algae which I believe is filamentous diatoms. This is mostly on the substrate, in and around the dwarf hairgrass.

It's not difficult to remove by hand - but always seems to come back after I've manually removed it.

Has anyone got an idea what could be causing this? Is it something that will clear as the tank matures?

I've read it could be caused by high silicate levels. However most silicate-removing filter media appears to eradicate Phosphates as well, which I don't want potentially causing deficiencies in the plants.

Any feedback welcome

-

 

[xZaiox]

Hey, I'm just going to copy and paste one of my previous replies in a post with type of algae (because I'm lazy )

These are absolutely diatoms. I had this exact same issue in my tank, you can even check out the link here - Is this filamentous diatoms?

Mine are all gone now. I strongly suspect this type is fuelled by decaying organic matter. It used to be all over my driftwood when the driftwood was new and stuff was constantly coming off it and growing on it. The driftwood is now smooth (likely thanks to my shrimp), and no longer gets this algae. It used to also smother my plants, but only when they were melting after adapting to a submerged state, as soon as they were adapted the algae disappeared.

My advice is dim the light intensity, have them on for a maximum of 6 hours, and optimise your CO2 and fertiliser regime. Basically, you want to get your plants growing as healthily as possible, this will put a stop to any form of algae. I found this particular type of algae very easy to remove with a turkey baster, I use fluval's one. The targeted suction pulls up entire matts of it really easily. I would advise getting something like this, and removing as much of it as you can.

So get those plants growing healthily, remove as much of the algae as you can as it grows, and give it time. Mine took a bit longer than 2 months from planting to go away.

Hope this helps

 

[Ash J]

I used phosguard for a couple of weeks in the filter to combat the filamentous diatoms that were out of control in my nano tank. Tank was crystal clear within 2 weeks, still required some manual removal during that time but none came back. Didn't have any I'll effects on the plants either.

 

[PARAGUAY]

7weeks to be expected as said remove as much as you can and plenty of water changes in the early stages . Patience and time should be ok

 

[Stu1407]

Diatoms are typical in any new tank set up, either fresh water or marine. Like others have said, time and patience and they will go away of their own accord as the tank matures. To be honest apart from cleaning them off the glass I don't do anything in a new tank to combat them and I would advise not to put any chemicals in that you don't need. It's part of a natural cycle along the way to a seasoned tank.

 

[Qwedfg]

I had this about 1000 times worse than you do in your tank. It started about a month into the tank and lasted for about a month. I ended up lowering my light intensity and water changes multiple times per week sucking out as much as I could. Seemingly on its own, it decided to stop growing and disappeared. I think this is mostly something you need to wait out.