How to have Diatom free aquarium?

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joietan
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 10:01 pm

How to have Diatom free aquarium?

Post by joietan » Mon Jan 14, 2019 7:21 am

I keep getting diatoms in my tank.
How do you keep your loach tank diatom free?

I cannot get nerite snails live for long as my clown loaches will eat them when they are hungry.
2 Otos cannot keepup with the diatom.
It is a barebottom tank which is easy to clean.
The tank is 3 months old.
No plants because i cant get them free from diatom.
There is a piece of large wood.
Siamese Algae Eater is doing great cleaning BBA.

It is 20 gallon tank and i put one eheim 2217 which gives adequate water flow.

I am changing my water at least twice a week each at least 50%
whenever i see diatom buildup on glass i scrape it with razor scrapper and do a 50% water change.
Light is on timer about 3 hours a day

Any idea to reduce diatom ?
Or Do i even need to worry about it?

Thank you
Joie

lof
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2018 7:39 pm

Re: How to have Diatom free aquarium?

Post by lof » Mon Jan 14, 2019 8:20 am

No it is normal to have diatoms. Having a lot is a sign of having low lights and no plants.
Cleaning it is just normal maintenance.

NancyD
Posts: 1608
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2006 9:17 pm
Location: SF bay area,US

Re: How to have Diatom free aquarium?

Post by NancyD » Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:00 pm

Well, a 20g tank is, at best, a quarantine tank for clown loaches & SAE in the short term. If you cannot get at least a 4 ft tank very soon, you should rehome both & get a much smaller loach species like A. sidthimunki (dwarf chain loaches) or pangios (kuhlis).
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Bas Pels
Posts: 360
Joined: Sat Nov 30, 2013 9:08 am

Re: How to have Diatom free aquarium?

Post by Bas Pels » Wed Jan 16, 2019 2:38 am

A new tank has much more diatoms than a mature one.

My suggesation would be to firstly follow the previous post, than improve this tank by adding sand, and plants. No matter which of both - loaches need sand to play in.

Then I would suggest to realize the 1 inch of fish a gallon only goes for small, thin fishes. Not overstocking the tank would no longer require you to keep changing so much water, making it possible for the tank to ripen, to get mature

loachnoob
Posts: 136
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2018 8:37 pm

Re: How to have Diatom free aquarium?

Post by loachnoob » Sun Jan 20, 2019 9:05 pm

Two words

Panda garra

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