Diatoms just cycling then go away?

[walzy444]

My tank is cycling and now I assume diatoms are all over everything! I want them gone, how do I get rid of them. It's brownish golden all over my rocks and glass. Now there are small patches of green. I got them off the glass but what about everything else?

 

[Aquadiva]

Embrace the cycle... You're gonna wake up one day, and they'll be gone.

.. or, you could get some snails...

 

[stingythingy45]

Yup,all part of the cycle.
If you're using ro/di water,the lack of silicates should make them disappear in a few weeks.

 

[afboundguy]

Just wait it out... All normal sorry to say... I know they're ugly but think of the big picture

 

[walzy444]

ok thanks. Everything was so nice and clean then all of a sudden ugly golden brown. I was planning on getting a few snails anyways, the ones that go under the sand (nersus.. sp??) and manybe some all around cleaners

 

[stingythingy45]

I personally have never seen any critter eat enough to make a dent in a diatom bloom.
But,it's a great idea to get some snail in that tank.Nassarius,cerith are a few of my favorites.Just keep in mind,you don't need a whole lot of nassarius snails.You'll mostly want snails that eat film algae like maybe a few turbos.They can be tanks when it comes to knocking over frags,but they do the job.

 

[JohnK]

What are you using for make up water?

 

[walzy444]

my water is a big mix.. I found the tank on craigslist and bought it on impulse. knew nothing about saltwater tanks. when i got the tank it was 11pm at night and had about 8-10 gallons of established water in it with my clown, 6 hermits and 3 small peices of live rock, so I went to a 24 hour CVS and bought 8 gallons of poland spring bottle water mixed with the sea salt.. then I filtered about 4 gallons with my brita filter haha and it took so long. so for the rest I used Tap water with the Kordon NovAqua+ water conditioner... (I know that was a bad idea... but I didnt know at the time that I could buy pre mixed salt water from a store ...) Now I know and last week I did my first water change (7 Gallons). So I am just hoping I dont get crazy algae from that tap

 

[walzy444]

Before...

After... Ew..

It looks ALOT worse in person.. the rocks all look really rusty

 

[stingythingy45]

I'd do a pretty good water change(25%) with quality 0 tds ro/di.
You can get this at some local fish stores(LFS).Then in about a week,do another 25% and so on.
A ro/di unit is your best friend in this hobby.

 

[walzy444]

yeah thats what i did my water change with, the ro/di saltwater I got from the fish store. Its 35 gallons and I changed 7 gallons almost a week ago

 

[snowmaker]

Personally, I don't see a thing wrong with 2nd picture.. except it's a little sterile looking compared to what it will look like some day soon. If you think that's bad, you may be in for a big disappointment in the coming weeks and months...
See all of that nice white sand? Just you wait...