Amanos Annihilated Diatoms

In case you're ever wondering what can quickly eradicate diatoms...amano shrimp! A few months ago, diatoms started showing up throughout my 36g tank. I was a bit surprised because my tank isn't really new any more, it's been running since July of last year. It got so bad that every plant, leaf, rock, and piece of decor was covered in that nasty brown stuff. I tried wiping it off with my fingers but that just got tedious. My guess is that overfeeding was the main reason. I tested for phosphates and while I can't remember what the exact result was, I do remember that it was pretty low. So I cut down the amount and frequency of feedings but I still needed to get rid of the diatoms.

After reading on several threads here that amano shrimp are good diatom eaters, I decided to get some. About 3 weeks ago, I put 10 amanos into my tank. Here is a picture of my tank probably just a couple days after I got the shrimp.




Gross, right? Then in less than 2 weeks, probably about 10 days, the diatoms were GONE! This picture is from tonight, but the tank has been this clean for over a week. Huge difference. You can see some of the amanos in the foreground. So proud of those kids.




They must've done most of their work overnight in the dark because I rarely saw them out and about during the day. And every morning, my tank was just a bit cleaner than the day before. Oddly, I see them out and about more often now (as you see in the picture), when there are no more diatoms. I've been feeding them a mix of algae wafers, shrimp pellets, and zucchini/summer squash.

 

Wow, that is a huge difference. Your cichlids don't bother them? I had 4 and 3 jumped out of the tank which I was assumed was bc my krib had spooked them so I never got anymore. I think I have 1 left but I haven't seen it in months. Now that my krib is gone, I may have to get some more!

 

I can't say for sure if they do or not. I saw the male picking apart one of them the day after I put them in, but he may have died first. I also had a jumper. But ever since, I haven't seen anything amiss. They're pretty big, too, so maybe that deters the cockatoos.

 

Still... that's pretty impressive!

 

I was very pleasantly shocked! I forgot how bad it was until I went back and saw that picture. Embarrassing!

If the shrimp didn't work, I was going to pull everything out and clean it by hand. SO glad I don't have to do that now.

 

While nerite snails are great, they don't seem to touch my plants at all. I may have to pay a visit to the LFS tomorrow for some amanos!

 

While nerite snails are great, they don't seem to touch my plants at all. I may have to pay a visit to the LFS tomorrow for some amanos!

Did you end up getting some?

 

No, they didn't have any when I went there last week. They had a bunch the previous weeks. Should've nabbed some then!