# Diaotoms-HELP



## henningc (Apr 17, 2013)

I just got a 30 cycled and ready to stock and the diatoms covered everything in less than 6 days. I hate to start over, so what can I do? I have been doing this 30 years and never had this happen!:surprise:


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Whats the substrate? Silicate sand is bad about feeding diatoms. Its basically just new tank syndrome. You can basically just wipe it off the sides and suck it off the sub with a siphon and let it work itself out.


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## henningc (Apr 17, 2013)

There is no substrate. I'll try your suggestion. Thanks


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## WolfpacJCH (Mar 13, 2017)

I came in search of feedback on a similar issue and thought I would add to this post vs. start another thread. I hope that is ok.

I recently finished cycling a 10g tank and was ready to purchase our fish for the tank. We had a vacation planned and thus were looking forward to purchasing upon arrival today. We got home and went upstairs were the aquarium is to find an outbreak of what I believe is diatoms after reading up. 

We left the aquarium light on for a week while we were gone which seems like it could have contributed to the issues. Does anyone know if this is the case? I cleaned the surfaces and tested the water. All levels are still good. Any reason I should hold on moving forward with fish?

Thanks in advance for any info.


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## insight2663 (Feb 6, 2021)

check the levels of phosphates. I am still in the process of dealing wit this. started a new 20 gal to raise plants for my 90 gal ciclid tanks. After a week, afte a couple of weeks to cycle the tank. water quality was good. added plants and some shrimp. expected some algae, the BAM, algae everywhere. the plants turned black and died. Ammonia went through the roof for all the dead plants. the black was diatoms that came from my tap water that is loaded with phosphtaes. Using Phosphate-e and Seachem Phos sorb to remove most of it. i believe you want less that .05 ppm


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