Water Flow/Diatoms

[MrsHaggis]

I got my water tested at my local aquarium shop on Christmas Eve and they told me everything was fine I could add a fish already (very early by what most people say - my tank is only 3 weeks old) and so I bought a ClownFish and an Electric Blue Hermit Crab.

The Clown stays on one side of the tank, the farthest away from my wave maker. So I thought that maybe the water flow was too strong for such a weenie fish (don't laugh if that sounds totally stupid...) and moved the wave maker in order to reduce the force of the water flow (I cannot changed the output of the wave maker). Could that have had an effect on diatoms blossoming? They started to appear since I moved the water flow......

I have a 60 litres (16 US gallons) tank.....and I'm just going to break open my chemistry kit to see what my water levels are.

So,

PH = 8
Ammonium = 0.1
NO2 = 0.1
NO3 = 40 (very high I know)
PO4 = 0.25 (also a little bit high)
Iron = 0

I don't have magnesium or Clacium tests yet....going back to the money pit that is the pet store tomorrow.....will also get something to bring down the NO3 and PO4.

Any ideas/hints/questions/suggestions??

[Bonneville08]

Hi Fiona,
My references indicate that the most likely culprit for a diatom bloom is excess Silica. It's been my experience that the biggest source for silica is the source of water that we use. As usual, water treated by reverse osmosis and de-ionization is the best way to go to limit Silica.
There may be a possibility that changing the pattern of flow in your aquarium started this, but the main cause is very likely the Silica. If you can siphon the diatoms out, that will export some of the silica, but if your makeup water has Silica the diatoms will be back.
Good luck