Things growing on my life rocks and sand

[MillionaireMachine]

Hi...i have some problems with my tank ...i hope some of you may clarify..I have these brownish stuff growing on my lr and sand bed and also my tank glass... its like chocolate color...not sure whether its algae hmmm...if it is how can i get rid of it... will phosphate help?? or should i buy turbo snails or should i juz leave it alone..please help

[weileong]

these are caused by SiO2 in your water. You must have used tapwate for setting up your tank and top up water.

If your tank is new then this is part of the cycling process and they will go away once the SiO2 are used up.

BTW how's the anemone?

[junyong84]

diatoms.. headache... i haf tons of em too...

[fishnchips]

these are caused by SiO2 in your water. You must have used tapwate for setting up your tank and top up water.

If your tank is new then this is part of the cycling process and they will go away once the SiO2 are used up.

BTW how's the anemone?

SiO2? Silicon Dioxide?

mmm...are u sure its silicon dioxide?

[weileong]

Its Silica Dioxide. If you use Rowaphos then it will absorb them.

The SiO2 caused/are food for the diatoms which are the browns stuffs he's referring to.

[blacknails]

And.. Ermm.. Snails and other creatures most likely won't eat them...

If your tank is new you should just wait and the brownish stuff should vanish in time...

You could also scrape off some of the brownish stuff if it becomes too unsightly..

[weisoon]

Scraping off the diatoms from the glass will only release them back into the water body and do not do much difference. Maybe you will like to try to use a sponge and wipe in one motion from bottom up and while holding the tip of the sponge off the glass so that most the diatoms will be trap on the inside of the sponge. Then take out the sponge and give it a good clean under running water and dry it off and start it all over again. This way more of the diatoms will be removed and thus shortening their cycle. IMHO

[MillionaireMachine]

thanks guys btw how long will it take for them to disappear? i will try to get the rowaphos soon..any other methods? anyway i did use tapwater but i already de-clorinised it...shouldnt be a prob rite??

and weileong...the anemone is doing fine...relaxing by the rock..thankx bro

[weileong]

dechlorinised only get rid of the Cl and does nothing to the silica.

Don't expect the Rowaphos to do magic

[kee]

use phosguard .. shld be able to remove.. or just leave it.. it will gone sooner or later

[MillionaireMachine]

where can i purchase these ...petmart??

[kee]

LFS shld have.. i also have the problem.. i just leave it and it will go

[MillionaireMachine]

anyway how long was that...a month

[kee]

depend on when ur tank mature lor...

[MillionaireMachine]

btw how u define a matured tank?? any signs?

[weileong]

after the brown ones you're get the green ones Then after that if you can keep the water parameters good then considered tank matured.

[maKo]

Meanwhile besides manually removing it, the only other thing you can do is to do more frequent water changes.

[lightningstrike]

petm@rt dun sell rowaphos....... think the cheapest u can get is from rebo@n. they sell the big economy bottle.

[AquaRa]

new tanks have a lot of diatoms. i know it's a bit ugly, but just leave it there.