Diatoms with No Nitrates No Phosphates!

[Makaveli]

Hello Everyone!

I have my tank running for now about 7 months. I recently had Cyano and that went away and now it's diatoms. My parameters below and I would love suggestions to get ride of the diatoms. I do have a UV Sterilizer that I had turned on but someone experienced at my LFS said it's not good to run the UV if you have corals as it kills off beneficial bacteria. The tank has cycled.

Tank: 35 Gallon Waterbox All in One
Using only RODI water
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: nearly 0
PH: 8.15 to 8.3
Mag: 1230 (kinda low?)
Calcium: 375 (kinda low?)
KH/Alk: 6.5-6.6 (low?)
Phos: 0 (too low?)
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 80 celcius
Powerhead on one side: AI Nero 3
Powerhead on the other side: regular affordable powerhead
Plenty of surface tension and water flow
Protein skimmer yet - Aqua Maxx Bullet 2 HOB working well
In the back chambers, I am running filter floss, chemipure blue and Seachem Matrix.

Fish: 2 clowns

Inverts: minimal (4-5 nassarius snail snails which I can't find and 4-5 torch snails

Corals: Zoas, Torches, Hammers, one sps (birdnest)

 

[gbroadbridge]

Hello Everyone!

I have my tank running for now about 7 months. I recently had Cyano and that went away and now it's diatoms. My parameters below and I would love suggestions to get ride of the diatoms. I do have a UV Sterilizer that I had turned on but someone experienced at my LFS said it's not good to run the UV if you have corals as it kills off beneficial bacteria. The tank has cycled.

Tank: 35 Gallon Waterbox All in One
Using only RODI water
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: nearly 0
PH: 8.15 to 8.3
Mag: 1230 (kinda low?)
Calcium: 375 (kinda low?)
KH/Alk: 6.5-6.6 (low?)
Phos: 0 (too low?)
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 80 celcius
Powerhead on one side: AI Nero 3
Powerhead on the other side: regular affordable powerhead
Plenty of surface tension and water flow
Protein skimmer yet - Aqua Maxx Bullet 2 HOB working well
In the back chambers, I am running filter floss, chemipure blue and Seachem Matrix.

Fish: 2 clowns

Inverts: minimal (4-5 nassarius snail snails which I can't find and 4-5 torch snails

Corals: Zoas, Torches, Hammers, one sps (birdnest)

First, find a better LFS as they're feeding you bad info.

UV does not kill off anything beneficial, as all the beneficial stuff lives on surfaces, not in the water column.

If you have Diatoms, they feed on silicates and are not affected much by Nitrate and Phosphate.

My concern is that if your Nitrate and Phosphate are truly zero, the stuff you are seeing on the substrate may in fact be Dinoflagellates, rather than Diamtoms, which is not so good.
Good news is that the UV may help to get rid of them.

Please post some pictures of the tank and the problem stuff - taken under WHITE light with blues turned off.

Then we'll be able to offer more advice.

 

[Lavey29]

It's probably not diatoms with your bottomed out nutrients levels.