Culturing Diatoms against Dinos

[pseudodiego]

Hi everyone

I have been battling dinos for around a month with no luck.

The tank is almost two years old, I have the nutrients over the roof, 35 nitrates and 0.8 phosphates. They appeared after I killed the ever present cyano with a chemical product. Which obviously I shouldn't have done.

I have UV always on, I added Bacteria, I did a 3 day blackout, so far no luck.

For a couple weeks I have been adding silicates, and I stopped water changes, but there is 0 signs of Diatoms so far, I think they are having trouble taking hold with so many dinos around.

So, I had an idea.

At the start of a reef tank there is usually a diatoms bloom, the ugly phase. So, maybe I can take some sand and a few rocks, sterilize them, put them in a 20 gallon tank, add a lot of silicates, and when the diatoms are full speed ahead, I'll add everything back into the DT.

This will take time, and maybe the dinos go away by themselves sooner, but if they don't, this might be a plan B.

Any reason why this won't work?

Thanks.

 

[PharmrJohn]

I have to say that this is not a good idea. Sorry. Glad you're thinking outside the box, but you're trading one issue for another. How is your flow? If you are battling cyano followed by dinos, the flow may not be enough. I'd continue with water changes and just practice good Husbandry. Also, do you dose Pods? Some copepods will eat some dinos. In the end, you need to find the root cause of your issues, as a nuclear option will only yield a temporary response.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I like how you are creative with combating dinos, but I agree with the above person; this is not a good idea. You will end up causing more algae issues and more nutrient depletion and could potentially crash your tank doing this.