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The ongoing diatom struggle


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I must admit, I am no where near perfect. As a few of you know, I have a 240 gallon display that I take great pride in but I have one lasting problem...those damn diatoms. So I'll start from the beginning. I 'adopted' a 180 from a guy who couldn't take care of it anymore. It was horrible, GHA was everywhere and nutrients were absolutly through the roof. So I scrubbed all the rocks off, not a trace of GHA was left. I put 100 percent all new sand in the 240 and moved about 10 percent of his water over and dosed bacteria to help with the massive bacteria removal. about two days later, we moved the livestock in and to this day, they live happily ever after in their new home. But from the start, diatoms were a huge issue. I ran GFO, no effect. Reduced the lights, no effect. I stir the sand bed surface once a week, and the next day it is back. I have a sand sifting star and a diamond back goby who constantly is sifting the sand. I run two MP-40's on each side of the tank at full blast. My phosphate is like .02 and nitrates sit at 6. I can't keep Cheato alive in the sump even with a kessil refugium light. Coral is doing great, inverts loving it besides a moody GBTA which no matter what I  do, will never be happy. So I come asking for suggestions. the tank is 7 months old at this point so I'm out of answers.

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11 hours ago, crimsonvice said:

I would say more flow and try increasing nitrates. 

Raising flow was what I was thinking. I just had one of my MP-40's die so I guess it is time for an upgrade anyway. I was thinking of maxspect gyre's or something similar. Have any suggestions on powerheads? 

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1 minute ago, DustingrahamRRA said:

I've had them high at one point. That only seemed to encourage Cyanno-bacteria growth. I lit the cheato opposite of what the main display was.  

Same here with the cheato growth but I’ve always ran light on the sump opposite the tank. 

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3 minutes ago, DustingrahamRRA said:

Raising flow was what I was thinking. I just had one of my MP-40's die so I guess it is time for an upgrade anyway. I was thinking of maxspect gyre's or something similar. Have any suggestions on powerheads? 

I like the gyres, I would say 2 xf250s. They do need to be cleaned often. I will take one out every other month and let it sit in a bucket of 50/50 vinegar water over night, running. 

sometimes people run into problems if they pull them apart to clean them. there are a bunch of parts, so it usually is because something is not put back together right. 

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