Diatoms...help!

[wakeboardgeek]

I've been doing 10% water changes every 5 days for about 3 weeks. I just ended a 2 day "lights out" period but I'm still getting diatoms. I am attributing the outbreak for either overdosing MB7 or AA. The only coral that seems to being effected is a blue milli (turning green) and a red planet (bleaching and not looking good). I use RO/DI water and my TDS is 0. The tank is about 4 months old...any suggestions? Thanks.

BB tank running carbon and gfo.

Salinity: 1.024 (Oceanic salt)
pH: 8.1-8.3 (probe)
Alk: ~9 dKH (Salifert)
Cal: 440 ppm (API)
NO3: < 5ppm (API)
PO4: undetectable (Salifert)

 

[CJO]

How old is your tank. If it is fairly new, diatoms are normal and should go away on their own after a little while.

If not, what kind of sand are you using? Diatoms need silicate to grow, which you can get with some of the playground sand that some people use.

CJ

 

[CJO]

Oops.. just saw that you said it is 4 months old. I think that you just need to wait it out a little longer. I wouldn't even bother with turning your lights off for a long period of time. Your tank is just going through another cycle.

CJ