diatom bloom

[rafa75g]

hi
just a quick question. will doing a water change during a diatom bloom effect the cycle of the bloom. will it make it last longer or will the bloom still expire on its own i have had this brown stuff for about a week and i need to do a water change . so should i wait till this bloom cycles itself out or just do a water change anyway
thanks

[leebca]

I moved your post to a more general forum, from the fish disease forum.

The water change will have no effect on the diatom (brown algae) cycle. The exception would be if the salt mix you are using contains silica compounds that will dissolve and make silica available to the microbes. It would also have no effect if the source water you are using is free of silica-based compounds. Sometimes even the 'purest' of source water contains silica.

So to accurately answer you question, a water change won't have any effect if the new water doesn't contain nutrients (silica) for the diatoms.

[rafa75g]

thanks im using ro/di water and instant ocean sea salt so it should be ok

[leebca]

NOTE: RO/DI water can still contain silica products. Not all DI resins will remove it and the molecule is small enough to pass through the RO membrane. Best to check the 'before water' for silica to see if it is there to begin with.

[summerr]

NOTE: RO/DI water can still contain silica products. Not all DI resins will remove it and the molecule is small enough to pass through the RO membrane. Best to check the 'before water' for silica to see if it is there to begin with.

I've never seen any test kits for silica. How do you test for it?

[leebca]

I believe Salifert has a test kit for silica(tes). The test kits may not be sensitive enough to get down to the low concentrations that are still suitable to help diatoms grow.

If you are using RO/DI that you make from your own tap water, ask the water source for the quantity of silica and silicates and silica ions in the water they offer. You can do the same of the place who makes the water, if you buy it.

You can also test in a kind of anecdotal way by using distilled water to see if there is a difference. This method will require a lot of distilled water and then using it over a long time (several months) to determine if the water source is the culprit.