MudHog

I have diatoms kicking my butt over the last couple months. How often should partial water changes take place? Since I had my tank (made a year last Feb) I've only done water changes during my cleaning every 3-4 weeks. When I clean I take out about 2/3 of the 37 gallons during cleaning. This process has seemed to be working fine and water would test good and fish were healthy. The 3-4 weeks time was also about when I would start to see diatoms and I would clean them out at that time. Now it seems they are showing up quicker and quicker, like within 2 weeks of cleaning. I'm not feeding any more food than I started and currently have a few less fish. My tank houses 9 Tiger Barbs, 1 Red Glass Barb, 2 Cherry Barbs and 1 Black Banded Leporinus. The Lep is approx. 4-5" long.

My lighting is the All-Glass Deluxe setup and is hooked to a timer that is on for 8 hours per day. During the weekends, the timer is setup for upwards of 10 hours as I have it set to be on when I wake up in the morning.


How often should I be doing partial water changes? Should I get a phosphate pad and put that in my power filter? Do I have enough lighting for a tall tank that I have?

When I clean, everything comes out the tank except my heater and power filter. All decorations come out and are soaked in hot water, cleaned with my hands and left in the sun to dry.

MudHog

I want to add that my hood mentioned is a All-Glass Deluxe hood and it's 20W of light and a 24" bulb.

joy613

When you say you clean your tank I am wondering if you are taking out all the things the good bacteria is growing on and sending your tank into a mini cycle. I have several tanks and when I take one down and set it back up using just the substrate and filter I will get diatoms because of a mini cycle.

Shawnie

I have some great corydoras that love that stuff...and ive just come to the conclusion that its part of the tank look

MudHog

That very well might be what's going on. I take everything out except the substrate, filter and heater. The non plant decorations get a scrubbing to get the brown film on them off and a good rinsing. The plants get soaked in hot water and rubbed with my fingers to get the brown film off them and then set in the sun to dry. Maybe it is a mini-cycle taking place everytime I clean my tank.

I tried some ottos', but my Tiger Barbs didn't take to them well. I'd like to find something that feeds off the diatoms and I've been considering some cory cats, but will not go with a pleco.

Shawnie

the corys will be ok with the pleco...ive got a small one with mine and ive read that others keep them together as well http://www.fishlore.com/Profiles-Corydoras.htm not to mention they are cute lil buggers...especially the albino's

capekate

Hi Mudhog
I was doing the exact same thing with the diatoms that I have/had in my tanks. I ended up going through mini cycles wondering why I had a fish die after this type of tank cleaning. Then testing the water I found that my ammonia was present. So I knew that by cleaning off all the plants and decorations, I was putting my tank in constant mini cycles.
I was advised by a lot of folks here of how to do a cleaning w/diatoms. We all like the look of a nice 'new' tank set up. So clean.. algae free all the plants nice and green or whatever color they are, and decorations spotless. But in an established aquarium, I have found this is impossible to maintain.
I was advised to clean only do one or two plants at each water change and not get all gung ho about it. Its so tempting to continue cleaning all the plants and decorations,plus vacuuming the gravel, but in the long wrong its a head ache when you have to do daily water changes til the tank cycles again. And I have had to do that too many times. I have now learned to only clean a few at a time and that my tank is not going to look spotless. I continue to do bi-weekly water changes and resist the temptation to clean the whole tank! Ohh and btw, the oto's are fantastic diatom eaters, too bad your tigers couldnt deal with them. I had very mean tigers, but for some reason every one ignored the oto's.

MudHog

Thanks kate. I will have to try and get in that routine of only a few plants at a time and do the pwc bi-weekly. Would phosphate help any for the time being and help get them out the water? I read where scraping them actually can worsen the situation as it's just spreading them around a larger area to regrow.


Shawnie, I wasn't mentioned having both. I was mentioning I wouldn't go with a pleco. I never did care for the look of them. I would REALLY like to have some oto's, but I've have to do away with my tiger barbs and I can't do that. I've had the TB since day one of the tank.
I will just have to keep some otos in my 10G office tank when I set it up with my cherry barbs.

Shawnie

oh okies!! sowwwy...my pleco doesnt eat the diatoms anyhoo ...I think they are spoiled on veggies n wafers lol

MudHog

gotcha.


On a side note: If I start cleaning a couple plants with bi-weekly water changes, when should I vaccuum that gravel? Or should I vaccum some areas bi-weekly during the water change?

How would live plants be helpful for me?

MudHog

Here are some pictures I took just a few minutes ago.

Water Test Results:

0.25 ppm Ammonia
5.0 ppm Nitrate
0 ppm Nitrite

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