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Luckedout 
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 Topic: Diatom Bloom
Posted: November 23 2009 at 12:34pm |
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So I'm going through a pretty fun diatom boom. My snails are loving it, but I'm hating it. I know it's part of the normal cycle for a new tank, but how long does it last? Anyway to make it shorter? I'm just sick of looking at brown....
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-Ben
90g Mixed reef
www.body-balancechiropractic.com
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chk4tix
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Posted: November 23 2009 at 12:41pm |
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To help us, help you can you answer a few questions please. What are your current levels at? how much in tank flow do you have? How many fish do you have and what kind of filtration do you use? How long has the tank been up and running?
Im pretty sure Mark (and others) will show up with some great advice.
Edited by chk4tix - November 23 2009 at 12:42pm
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Luckedout
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Posted: November 23 2009 at 1:06pm |
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It's a new tank. It's been running about 4 weeks and I just put MH lights on it last week for the first time, so I expected the bloom. My lvls are all normal (nitrite, nitrates 0, ph 8.20, salinity 1.025, etc) and I have good flow. (1000gph return pump with 2 powerheads (250gph) in the tank). I have a refugium with some chaeto and live rock rubble, plus a protein skimmer and carbon bag. I have 2 fish (chomis) and a peppermint shrimp with cleaner crew.
Like i said. I expected the bloom with the light. I was just wondering if there is a way to cycle this quicker. Water changes? Or is it just a time factor?
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-Ben
90g Mixed reef
www.body-balancechiropractic.com
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chk4tix
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Posted: November 23 2009 at 1:10pm |
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You can try water changes or they have red slime remover you can buy. However, it sounds like your tank is getting use to the MH's. You could try to reduce the amount of time the lights are on to see if that helps. Depending on the placement of the powerheads you could try moving them around to see it that helps. Most-likely it will just take time for your tank to balance out. I can remember how terrible my tank looked, but luckily it went away.
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Luckedout
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Posted: November 23 2009 at 1:27pm |
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good idea about the powerheads. It doesn't bother me when it's on the rocks or glass at the back of the tank. But when it's right there in front it really bothers me. I'll try moving them around to see if I can clear it up at the front of the tank.
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-Ben
90g Mixed reef
www.body-balancechiropractic.com
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: November 23 2009 at 5:51pm |
Thanks Keith. I do have something that may help and the principle I describe here may help y'all figure out how to handle other situations in the future.
The RDP(Reverse Daylight Photosynthesis) Refugium you have built into your system has many different purposes.
One of those puposes is to remove nutrients from the entire system and that in turn helps keep nusiance algae from growing in the display. My H.S. Chemistry teacher was fond of asking a logical question and leaving us to find the reply. Most of us hated his method, but it probably helped us develop our thinking. So here is the obvious question:
How can the efficiency of an RDP Refugium be temporarily increased so that it takes out more nutients to better keep nusiance algae out of the display? Will this same temporary action also help any time there is a need to handle a sudden problem, like the death of a large fish or coral?
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Luckedout
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Posted: November 23 2009 at 6:18pm |
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Maybe by leaving the light on longer? Increase the algae growth in the fuge so that it's not increasing in the tank?
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-Ben
90g Mixed reef
www.body-balancechiropractic.com
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: November 23 2009 at 6:28pm |
Yes that's exactly right. 
Leaving the refugium light on 24 hrs a day will usually double it's production - its removal of nutrients. Then after a few days or weeks it can be returned to the RDP schedule which seems to work best in the long term.
I would sometimes leave all the lights in the system turned on for up to a week when I had a large addition of uncured LR. This grows algae all over the place to eat the extra nutrients. All the herbivores love it and this is when I'll would also bring in extra snails and sell them along with the cured LR.
Water changes are unnecessary in this case and again FYI, water changes feed algae.
Edited by Mark Peterson - November 23 2009 at 6:31pm
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CapnMorgan
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Posted: November 23 2009 at 10:53pm |
^ what he said  . I leave my refugium lights on 24/7 and my tank has grown very fast because of it. Nitrates are at 0 and I have pretty much no nuisance algae in my tank.
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Steve My Old 180G Mixed ReefCurrently: 120G Wavefront Mixed 29G Seahorse & Softies Running ReefAngel Plus x2 435-8
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Luckedout
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Posted: November 25 2009 at 12:29pm |
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So I did it. Interesting note. I had a huge bloom in my refugium... now 2 days later and it's gone. There's nothing left. I have like 2 snails in there so I know they didn't clean it that fast. The bloom in my tank looks like it's tapering off as well. No more oxygen bubbles and it hasn't spread to glass that I've cleaned like it has in the past. I'm really pumped. I think I'll just leave my refugium light on all the time from here on out.
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-Ben
90g Mixed reef
www.body-balancechiropractic.com
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: November 25 2009 at 1:44pm |
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Good to see that our advice helped.
Like I said above, an RDP Refugium seems to work best in the long run. The algae needs a daily rest period. But that doesn't mean it needs a full 12 hours like in the wild. At least 6 hours of sleep time seems to help it do the maximum work in the long run.
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