Diatom Bloom not subsiding

[topbottomfeeder]

Hi all,
My tank has been set up for about 4(?) month now, and just 2 weeks ago I started to have a diatom bloom, and now it's everywhere, the cleaners can't seem to keep up and all the live rocks are brownish.

my water is just pristine, everything is in perfect condition since the start of the bloom, I can probably keep coral(jk, not going to do that) in that water.

I limited feeding to just twice day and I only fed a small amount(enough for the fish, though) but the bloom isn't subsiding, the fish look fine, should I be worried that the bloom is still going after 2 weeks?

[FishboyDave]

I wouldnt worry too much. But what I would do is stop feeding those fish twice a day and cut back to 3-4times a week. Also what kind of food are you feeding them twice a day flakes, frozen, dried?

[FishboyDave]

wait that says 4 month? and its a diatom bloom? can you post some pictures?

[topbottomfeeder]

oops I meant 5 month, but it's not much of a difference with 4.

right now I'm feeding 8 fish a pureed mix of nori, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, bloodworms, and frozen wild squid in a .75cm cube(I measured), I caught the squids myself, pretty proud of that.

I'm not really 100% sure it's a bloom, the tank turned really brown in a relatively short time. maybe it's something else? but it looks concerning.

I'll try to post pics but it'll be a while, I left my good camera at a friends house, I guess I can try to describe the tank situation?

the rocks are mostly light brown and there are brown patches everywhere on the sand, there are more patches on the sand where there is low flow than high flow, and they're more concentrated in areas of high lighting(but I only leave it on 8 hours a day) and there is almost none on the front glass panel while there is a lot on the back(I didn't clean it at all) the skimmer is working from 2" from the bottom( total of 5") and is on all the time and it skims about 1/3 of the cup every 3 days.

I think that's it.

[topbottomfeeder]

Oh I just realized, I haven't cleaned my canister filter EVER since it started working. maybe that's why?

[FishboyDave]

could it be cyano bacteria?

[bellis31]

Oh I just realized, I haven't cleaned my canister filter EVER since it started working. maybe that's why?

Most likely this is part of it, change out whatever material you have in there and do a 25% water change each week for the next month and you should see a difference.

With your bio load you may have to clean that canister filter weekly!

[topbottomfeeder]

strange, the canister filter is pretty much clean, only small amount of debris and slime. I expected waaaay more stuff.

I'm going to clean it anyway and change the water. hopefully it'll help.

[bellis31]

strange, the canister filter is pretty much clean, only small amount of debris and slime. I expected waaaay more stuff.

I'm going to clean it anyway and change the water. hopefully it'll help.

Keep in mind the first 6 to 8 months will be full of change for a new tank, using RO/DI water and keeping up on weekly and monthly maint will make the difference.

Stay Patient..

Good luck!!