capekate

Hi everyone..
I know that we all deal with the new tank syndrome 'Diatoms'. I just set up a new tank recently and knew that the diatoms would appear before long.
What I found amazing tho, is that the Diatoms are only appearing on the side of the tank that I keep the light on. The lights are great and for the most part except in the evening I keep one side of the lights off all day long. The right side of the tank is where the diatoms are appearing, the light is on all day.The left side of the tank where I hardly keep the light on at all, is showing no signs of Diatoms. I have two photos below to show the difference.
One side has it on the rocks and sand the other, nothing.
Can it be possible to omit this new tank syndrome that appears within the first few months of a new tanks life by keeping lights off for the most part?
Im going to continue with this experiment and see if the light actually affects the growth of diatoms or not.Which by the photos appears to be so.
Wouldnt it be nice if all we had to do was keep the lights on for the shortest possible time in order to rid ourselves of this new tank syndrome?

Attached Images

	Diatoms in new tank1.jpg (208.8 KB, 167 views)
	no Diatoms in left side of new tank.jpg (163.7 KB, 163 views)

Shawnie

wow thats a neat experiment...im wondering if the lights speed it up ? but will be nice to see in the long run if its going to happen anyhow...keep us informed!!

as far as trying it on other tanks, you probably can if you have the two sided kind of lights you do but with just one light, not sure how it would be keeping the lights off for a few months and only natural light coming in ...will the fishies adapt to that and be ok?

capekate

I know if I only had the one light on my tank I wouldnt want to try it either.. poor lil fishies with no lights on at all. I guess if it does work.. that it would only be able to be used with two lights on the tank.

Shawnie

be very interesting to find out if it can be totally avoided without light tho!!

capekate

Yep, it sure would be nice if I only had to clean one side of the tank lol...
But Im thinking they may just multiply anyway.. but I will keep posting on the results.

Shawnie

or speed things up ..as this is only a bit over a week right?

capekate

Yep, its exactly one week today...

haedra

Sounds interesting! But I am wondering, if they will just start appearing anyway when you do start using the lighting (assuming that you won't keep it off forever).

I've read that they are so abundant in new aquariums, because they feed off sylicates that are present in new tanks; and that when this food source is gone, as long as it's not being continually added in the new water for water changes, that they will go away. So while keeping the light off for awhile may help, I'm wondering if you would be just putting off the inevitable.

capekate

Makes sense Haedra, but with that, if they do eat the sylica that may be present in the new tank then waiting with the lights out may work. In that, Im wondering if its possible that the sylica moves around the tank? If it does by the power bar or air pump maybe it is being pushed to one side of the tank? Waiting it out for a while may work if this is the case. Does that make sense to you?

haedra

Could be...

It's actually a little confusing that the light reduction is reducing the diatoms on that side, as everything else I've read about diatoms as well indicates that they flourish with insufficient lighting...

But please do let us know how it goes! I fear I might always have a problem with any kind of algae unless I start using RO water or heavily planting my tank, due to my nitrate issues in my tap water.

KyWildFish

There are a lot of different kinds of diatoms out there. Perhaps the ones in Capekates area of the world are photosensitive sylica users. I do agree with headra in that once the light is introduced they should bloom. One thing that might work is keeping the lights off and doing frequent water changes to reduce the pressence of sylica in the tank by simply removing some with each change. Just a thought.

capekate

Thanks KyWildFish...
I think that I will look into more water changes and vacuuming and see if that will help keep the diatoms down.

agabr123

i wonder if it's possible to get rid of diatoms faster by leaving the tank lights ON during the entire cycle? i.e. never turning them off even at night, there must be a reason why the diatoms disappear after a few months, maybe it has to do with light adjustment.

capekate

I just dont know Alex. That is one reason why Im going to run this 'experiment' and see what happens.

MissMTS

Good Morning Kate

This sounds like a really interesting experiment. I am anxious to hear how it goes Here's a wierd thing.....I have had diatoms in every new tank that I have set up except my 75 gallon. I wonder what I did differently that kept the diatoms at bay

pinkfloydpuffer

I'm just starting to get diatoms in my 80g tank. It's sooooo ugly. I have my lights on a timer, it turns on at 6PM and off at 11PM. I thought that such a short amount of time with the lights on would help with that. Curse brackish and it's algae-growing properties!
I'm interested to see what your findings are Kate.

capekate

I dont know how you did it Kate in your 75gal tank.. but we need to know asap! hahah...

MissMTS

Hmmmm.....The lighting in the tank is 1 WPG. I did start the tank up fully planted though. Maybe the plants helped keep the diatoms away?

capekate

Hi PFP,
I will keep an eye on things during the next few days and watch for any changes and get back in this thread on any changes and findings.

capekate

hmmmmm... thats a possibility! Maybe others with fully planted tanks can give us some input on whether they also had or had not any diatoms?

haedra

I was NOWHERE NEAR even moderately planted, but I can tell you that my diatoms (how lovely, I can call them "mine") got considerably worse when I removed my hornwort. As in, like at least double what was there before. Before, it for the most part, grew only slightly on the gravel; but in higher concentration on the ornaments, and noticeably more on my heater. Since removing the hornwort it is starting to cover the glass.

Coincidence? Possibly. But I'm inclined to believe that plants like that must help..because before it never seemed to get either worse or better, but two days after I removed the plant it almost started exploding in brown. Yuck!

capekate

Hi Haedra,
its possible it was coincidence... as once the diatoms start, over time they do multiply and rapidly take over. It may have been just the sequence of events(time wise) and not the hornwort removal that caused the rapid development of more diatoms in your tank? I cant say for sure, just throwing this out there...

haedra

Why couldn't they at least be a cool color? Brown is the worst.. I could live with them, if they were say.. purple or something!

capekate

hahah... and couldnt we just change the color from time to time to coincide with the seasons or holidays too? they would then be very bearable in our tanks hehehe...

capekate

hmm you never know? That is a good theory. I do want a more planted tank but in my case, thought I would wait til the diatom event is over before I put them in.
So far... still no diatoms on the side with no lights on. With the two hood lights, its not always totally dark on the side with no light turned on, but so far... no diatoms there and more on the right side, that I actually cleaned off yesterday during a water change, as I was getting sick of looking at it lol.

IIIHawKIII

what ever happened with this?

Cichlidelicious

Hello everyone. This is my first post on this board. I found it while googling for this very topic.

Unless I am mistaken, a few of you seem to be under the impression that diatoms result from a low light level, and are introduced through the water supply. My experience over the years is that the main culprit which contributes to the growth of diatoms isn't a low light level, but rather, as some of you have stated here, the presence of a high level of silicates in the tank. As some of you have discovered, whether you have a low level of light, or a high level of light, the diatoms continue to grow, just at different rates. That points to something else stimulating their growth, outside of the level of the light source...which points to the silicates. Silicates basically have three sources of introduction into a tank: via the water, via the substrate, (particularly when it is sand or dolomite), and via the rock decor itself, (particularly when it is limestone/coral rock based).

I reset up my old 40 gallon tank in April. Here where I live, the water is hard and alkaline, and full of silicates. Furthermore, my substrate is sand from the backyard, and my rock decor is limestone and coral rock, also from the backyard. As you can imagine, the diatoms are slowly taking over every space they can. The only consolation is that my mbunas seem to enjoy munching on the diatoms, particularly at night.

From experience, eventually, I expect that the diatom population will be overtaken by green filamentous algae, which I hope my mbunas will enjoy, being as they are herbivores. The theory, as it goes anyway, is that the green filamentous algae simply out-competes the diatoms for nutrients, which is why the diatoms eventually disappear. Whether or not this is in fact true, I honestly do not know, as I am not an aquatic biologist. Considering that our water here has a high silicate content, one would think that the diatoms would persist, yet they don't. That again seems to point to competition from the green filamentous algae.