how i beat brown (diatom) algae !

Howst guys and girls ,haven't been on in a while but I have still been active in the hobby ....

About a 2 months ago I finished cycling my auncles new tank and got fish in ...over the proceeding weeks his tank started do develop severe diatom algae .I told him don't stress just stick to the weekly routine of waterchanges and maintenance and it will go away within a few months ....each week it was getting progressively worse (btw all tank water parameters where correct ) until last week he told me we gotta sort this out no matter what ......so onto some research I don't want to go into everything (its all on wikipedia) but basically the main reason for diatoms usually are phosphates and silicate .I presumed phosphates where fine as we were not using any ferts yet , feeding was kept to a minimum ( fed omega one ) and water changes where done like clockwork ...I know its wrong to presume without testing but read on .

Then attribute of diatoms is that they feed of silicates so I figured if I get rid of their "food" they will go away right ?

RIGHT !!! So of I went and did more research and came across seachem PHOSGAURD wich removes silicate and phosphate within 2 weeks .....or so it said ....of we went to jungle aquatics and purchased seachem phosgaurd and seachem "the bag " ....went home and put the media in the bag and put it into the juwel filter box ( we also did regular maintenance at the same time however we did not scrub any algae) ....

3 days yes 3 days later the tank is crystal clear not a single blemish of algae anywhere ....

Diatoms are a thing of the past .

 

Nice thanks for letting us know! Love seachems products, they are excellent quality!

 

Hi

Just tell me one thing do you have plants in your tank and did it kill or damage your plants

 

I would also like to know the answer to that... I made the mistake of putting in some meth blue and all my plants died...

 

iv heard that phosgaurd is not safe to use is phosphate buffer tanks and tanks with a lower ph, i stand to be corrected though

 

Yes in deed there are tons of plants in the tank .....none of them suffered at all .
I must add however that they are all hardy plants that are in the tank ,amazons ,various ferns ,dwarf hairgrass,anubias and some vallis .....

If used for a extended period of time then I can see why it can damage plants especially if you are dosing ferts (NPK)
As it will remove the phosphate from the ferts but diatoms appear in newly established tanks and like I said I wait a while before I start ferts ,to make sure everything is in balance.

Cheers

 

Darn i just wanted to post a help blog lol.

Ive got java moss in my tank and its totally light brown with all the algea i guess il have to go buy that stuff u used is this the same algea?