DIATOM free! In just 7 days! (Here's how I did it!)

[Anonymous]

Hi. I admit; I had a huge diatom (aka. brown algae) problem. However in just 7 days I am now looking at a snow white sandy substrate, clean glass and diminishing green/brown hairs. It has been getting steadily better over the past few days and today is my first official day that I would say that I have conquered it. Here's a chronological account.

1. Instead of spending my money on a "clean-up-crew" I decided to attack the source of the problem so I bought a RO/DI unit 2 months ago (Spectrapure). I did numerous massive water changes, even did a 99% water change, but every time, after a couple of days my rocks and sand would be brown again.

2. I suffered through several months of agony, scraping the glass carefully, syphoning the sand and washing it in the bathtub, but every time the brown diatoms grew back after 2 or 3 days. Huge mats of thick brown masses killing my corals and over running my coraline algae...

3. Bought PhosGuard. Dumped a bunch in my "media filter", but this did absolutely nothing to clean up the problem. Did the same with Coralife Silicate removing compound and nothing worked at all.

4. Researched diatoms and found that they will only grow if they have silicate *and* phosphate. So I researched silicate/phosphate removing compounds and what I found out greatly surprised me.

I had been using PhosGuard wrong. Here is how to PROPERLY use a phosphate/silicate removing compound.

YOU CAN'T JUST DUMP IT IN YOUR "CHEMICAL MEDIA FILTER" AND HOPE THAT IT REMOVES THE PHOS/SIL. IT WON'T!

The chemical is Aluminum Oxide. When placed in your tank water, it causes the silicate and phosphate ions to clump together. That's all it does. IT DOES NOT REMOVE THEM. You have to do this yourself using mechanical filter paper. I used some paper towels which I folded up and placed directly "downstream" of the PhosGuard. I have Emperor 400 and found it's chemical media holders to be perfect for this. Just sandwich the paper towels between the media plates and aim them so that the water flows first over the PhosGuard, then into the paper towel which traps the phosphate & silicate ions.

Change the paper towels ever 12-24 hours, and change the PhosGuard every 12-24 hours at first and then every 24-36 hours after about 6 days. I ended up using 2Liters (1.2Kg) of PhosGuard to clean my 75g tank.

After about 2 days of use, give your tank the usual wiping of the glass and syphon/wash the sand. Do this perhaps once more in a couple of days.

Go easy at first. It does take time. It took me about 8 days to TOTALLY get rid of my diatom problem. It seems that consistantly using small/medium amounts does as much good as dumping massive amounts of PhosGuard. So why waste it. Just be patient.

-----------------------

In retrospect here are some reasons why I believe that I had diatom problems:

1. Filthy "city" water (New Jersey, near Philadelphia) full of silicate and phosphate. My DI cartrige is already exhaused and I only made about 300g of water!!! This shows that my source water has lots of impurities. My micron filter is BLACK after only 300g of use. Perhaps some of this pollution is fallout from hurricane Floyd which battered parts of New Jersey a couple of months ago.

2. I didn't over feed my fish. I fed very sparingly thinking it was *my* fault that I had a bloom, but it really was the polluted "city" water.

In the future I will have to run my RO water through some additional DI cartriges. I may make them myself using multiple numerous layers of aluminum oxide/paper towel. This will remove the phosphate and silicate from my top off water.


Well if any of you have questions about this feel free to reply or you could e-mail me:
[email protected]

I will not be here next week (first week of the new millenium).

Good luck with all your reefings!!!

-Nathan Morris

[This message has been edited by Nathan (edited 28 December 1999).]

 

[Anonymous]

Randy Holmes-Farley,

Hope this helps clear some things up. I feel that this is an important topic especially since there are so many people with diatom, or hair algae problems, and this problem might not have anything to do with "overfeeding" but more likely to do with being the victim bad "city" water.

You are correct in pointing out that it's not the ions that clump together. I'll let Lisa Mullen of the "Water Quality Association" of America explain in her two e-mails to me.

--------------------------------
A portion of silica present in water, especially at pH below 8, is
present as colloidal silica and suspended particles. Aluminum polymers
can act as coagulants for this type of silica, causing the individual
silicate colloids and particles to agglomerate and flock together into
large enough aggregates to be caught by water filters.
Ferric hydroxide also adsorbs silica particles in the coagulation
process. Otherwise, ionic silica must me removed via the anion exchange
process or through reverse osmosis or distillation.
We hope this helps you,
Water Quality Association


---------------------------

> Two more quick questions: So are you saying that the aluminum compound
> doesn't actually "remove" silica, but rather *allows* the silica to be
> trapped by another filter such as activated carbon?
>
> Also, would aluminum oxide work to remove phosphate in much the same
> way?
>
> Thanks,
>
> -Nathan

Dear Nathan,

Yes, the aluminum compound doesn't actually remove the silica, however,
activated carbon is not the best for sediment filtration. It would be
better to use a sediment filter rather than an absorption filter.
Aluminum oxide will work somewhat to remove phosphate in the same way.
Treatment with aluminum coagulents such as alum (Al2(SO4)3 and
aluminates (AlO2-) can form insoluble aluminum phosphate compounds.
Hope this helps,
Lisa A. Mullen

--------------------------


-Nathan

 

[Anonymous]

In any case, even if I don't have all the exact "chemistry" understood, the process that I described HAS WORKED!

Nothing else worked for me, but my experiment worked and that's what counts. Trust me, if you agonized over a massive diatom bloom for months and cleaned your substrate numerous times, and tried everything, you will be pretty happy to find that the method I tried worked very well; in just 7 days!

-Nathan

 

[Anonymous]

Nathan,

So many people struggle with this problem...I'd love to put your technique up on my website as a valuable source of information! If it's ok with you, let me know!!

Mary www.reefsource.com
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[This message has been edited by MaryHM (edited 28 December 1999).]

 

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, I already deleted my original post stating that this information is simply wrong. I didn't want to get into a silly argument about this and I still don't.

You are misunderstanding the Water Quality woman's email, and she is misunderstanding what you did.

When aluminum oxide is added to a tank as large particles within something like a filter or media bag, it has no effect whatsoever on dissolved silica or phosphate except to the extent that some is adsorbed onto the aluminum oxide surfaces.

There is nothing in solution to capture with filter paper, unless you released the aluminum oxide particles into the water stream, in which case you sure do need to filter them out! You didn't do that, did you?

The fact that it works reminds me of a monkey that I saw at Monkey Jungle in Florida. He apparently would rant and rave at anyone approaching his cage. Since all tourists eventually left each day, he figured that his ranting was successful!



------------------
Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Anonymous]

Randy,

I certianly am willing and open to learn. This whole hobby is about learning, so thanks for your valuable input.

So from your point of view, how does PhosGuard actually work? Are you saying that it *does* absorb phosphate/silicate? I would love to know your opinion on just how it works. I don't know exactly, but like I said, it worked for me only when I used paper towels. I'd like others to try and perhaps we can come up with a successful method.

What about what the "Water Quality Association" people said:
-------------
"Aluminum polymers can act as coagulants for this type of silica, causing the individual silicate colloids and particles to agglomerate and flock together into large enough aggregates to be caught by water filters. [such as a sediment filter]"
-------------

Also:
"Yes, the aluminum compound doesn't actually remove the silica".

Like I said I would love to discuss this since I believe it is the number one reason why people quit reefing, and it's a shame if it is true that it can be cleared up within a week!

-Nathan

 

[Anonymous]

MaryHM,

Perhaps you could hold off posting this to your web site until the discussion is over.

But by all means promote what needs promoting, especially if it will save people like me from tumultous headaches!

-Nathan

 

[Anonymous]

Nathan:

It's simple enough to ask the people at Seachem how Phosguard works. Ask for Leo Morin. He's the principle there, and is well versed in chemistry. He and I have had extensive discussions about reef tank chemistry in the past on Compuserve's Fishnet, where I'm a consultant.

Phosguard does absolutely remove phosphate directly out of the water. The phosphate adsorbs onto the Phosguard surfaces, both interior and exterior. If you remove the Phosguard, you remove the phosphate. I've used it for phosphate, and it works fine. It takes a lot, and isn't a good long term solution for phosphate because of the time and cost.

The Water Quality woman spoke of precipitating silica with polymers. You did not add aluminum polymers, or anything else that went out into solution. You added big, macroscopic particles. Consequently, you could not agglomerate anything out in solution.

------------------
Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your input Randy.

According to Seachem's web site, they would tend to agree with your position clearly stating that:
"[phosphates are bound to aluminum oxide]".

I just wonder why then the paradoxical claim by the Water Quality Assn.
"[Yes, the aluminum compound doesn't actually remove the silica]".

It was specifically this statement that lead me to use paper towels as a "sediment filter". By the way, the filter paper was very dirty when I removed it after 12-24 hours! So it must have removed lots of organics.


-Nathan

 

[Anonymous]

Nathan:

I presume that the water quality woman was referring to the use of aluminum salts in precipitating fine particles from solutions at water treatment plants.

In that application, a salt such as aluminum sulfate is added to water that has already been made basic with calcium oxide (lime). The aluminum quickly forms aluminum hydroxide, which is a gelatinous solid. This solid precipitate takes other small particles out of solution along with it as it settles. They then filter the water to remove the precipitate, and viola, you have clean water.

------------------
Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Anonymous]

Nathan:
As a followup to your comment about filtering out stuff, I forgot to mention that Phosguard ought to be rinsed with RO/DI water to remove fine particles prior to use. These bits break off in manufacture and shipping, and get out into the tank. They can irritate some corals (like leathers).

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Randy Holmes-Farley