trozacky Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 My 55 gallon tank is 10 days old. Its starting to develop diatoms on the LR. Ive also had three snail die over the weekend. Im planning a water change this coming weekend. I bought the tank with fish so I has livestock thats doing great. How long will it take for the diatoms to cycle? Anything I can do to help it? Why do you think the snails are dying(1 hermit also)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 Have you tested the water? Specifically, what are the nitrate numbers? Diatoms from what I read feed on silica and nitrates. Inverts are sensitive to nitrates. Could be a nitrate issue. Diatom in a newer tank is normal and should go away on its own in a couple weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trozacky Posted June 6, 2011 Author Share Posted June 6, 2011 My Dr. Tims just came in today so I added that into the tank this morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhart032 Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 The dr. tims will help a new tank cycle fast. it may help but if you are already having diatom issues i would think its not going to be much benefit. what would benifit most would be so sachem stable i wouldnt do a water change just yet. i would get ammonia under control, that is more than likely whats killing the snails and will kill the other live stock if you dont get it under control, but no real way to tell unless we know what the chemistry of the tank is. ammonia, nitrates, nitrites and ph and dkh. also there are a few species of snails that will eat diatoms rather quickly. i added my clean up crew when i added the rock (now my rock was over 5yrs cycle and cooked for 8 months prior to tank use) and used dr. tims and its been about a month and everything is super stable and havent seen any of the normal cycle issues like diatoms and gha growing on the glass. thats mainly a cause of the different good bacteria growing to eat the bad and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trozacky Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 Im now noticing a small amount a green hair alge starting to form on the tops of rock. Normal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmmthree Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 My tank just cycled as well. I also had a diatom outbreak as well as green algea starting to form. I added a clean up crew and cut the lights down to being on for about 6 hours a day and that seemed to fix my issue. Im now noticing a small amount a green hair alge starting to form on the tops of rock. Normal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trozacky Posted June 8, 2011 Author Share Posted June 8, 2011 Just checked the water and the nitrates were 80 ppm and the nitrites were also high at about 3.0-4.0. So i added a little more Dr.Tims. The fish seem much happier. id do another test on friday and hopfully things are headed in the right direction. I am also going to limit the light use to 5hr per day. Are the LED stunners lights OK? They are the dark blue. Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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