Newbie guess: Diatoms, but not sure

**annewaldron** · 05-10-2012, 02:44 AM

Hi all! New here, and I have some pictures to share:

These are the best pics I could get. All I had to do was wave my hand over the leaves and the brown speckles dispersed into the water. I have a new, just-starting-to-cycle (fishless) 30 gallon freshwater.

My first newbie guess is diatoms.

I have a T5HO dual bulb lamp and am doing 6 hours light-on per day.

Here's the whole tank:

I took out the wood and am soaking it to lessen the tannins- the tank was getting pretty brown. There's a media bag in there with decomposing raw shrimp as my ammonia source.

Am I right about diatoms?

(p.s. I'm at .25/.25/5 on my water parameters)

**escamosa** · 05-10-2012, 08:12 AM

It certainly sounds and looks like diatoms. Don't worry about those just yet though. Your tank will probably get a bit yucky looking while you cycle it, because you really shouldn't be doing any cleaning at all. You want to leave it alone so that the good bacteria will grow. If they're still hanging around in the tank once you have finished cycling, and are moving onto a regular cleaning routine, then we can help you get rid of the problem, if they get really bad.

Causes of diatoms can be, high nitrates from over feeding and fish poo, lack of maintenance, not enough light, or high amounts of silicates and phosphates. Silicates and phosphates usually come from your tap water and some kinds of sand for use as substrates. There's products on the market to help get rid of silicates and phosphates, if doing a nice regular cleaning routine doesn't do the job. You could probably test your tap water for phosphates, while you cycle your tank, if you like! At least then you will know if the problem is going to be coming from the tap later on!

**Lady Hobbs** · 05-10-2012, 01:52 PM

http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_...ater_algae.php

The diatoms I had sure would not blow away with a wave of the hand. I had to wipe them away with a scrubber and soak the rocks in bleach water. Are you sure this isn't just debris the filters are not picking up?

**escamosa** · 05-10-2012, 08:54 PM

I think it depends on how well established the diatoms are, as to whether they're hard to remove or not. If they're only just starting to settle in, then they're quite easy to remove from the glass or plants. I have had a small amount of diatoms once before - i noticed it on the glass. I caught it early and I hardly had to even touch it to clean it off. I mean, you don't just fill your tank, and BAM, you have a full blown case of diatoms - they do have to grow.