Diatoms?

[MizTanks]

What causes this?

[adalius]

Lots of things similar to algae. Long lighting periods, nutrients, phosphate, etc. But the one thing they really need is silica to form the diatom skeletons. It's possible in a newer tank you might have some that comes with live rock/sand, but if you fill your tank with RO/DI it should be used up after the first outbreak or two. If you're using tap water there's a chance of silica being in the water supply which could cause them to appear after most/every water change.

[MizTanks]

So I was freaking right telling someone that using straight up tap water may be high in silica contributing to his diatoms issues?

[adalius]

Possible. It could also lead to other algae issues. Sometimes it just depends which (algae or diatoms) gets going first as it'll hit the ground running. P04 tests are like, $15. Easy way to find out. But if his water is silica free it should be algae instead of diatoms, so that's another thing he might be getting from his tap water.

I'm fighting diatoms myself right now, and I use straight tap water. But it's something I'm living with until I can afford an RO/DI unit.

[MizTanks]

I got diatoms too from using my tap water. Then I switched to ro/di from wally world. Diatoms gone, HA here I come. Man I had that stuff so so bad. Lost sooooo many zoa frags. Then I bought me a little single stage ro unit that hooks right up to my tap and within a month all the HA is gone!!! Talk about being educated in diatoms, algae, water and filtration, geeee wizzzzzz!

[adalius]

I had a nice single stage back in the day and I can't find it since I moved. Going to spring for the big boy this time though since I figure if I'm doing the big tank down the road I might as well have the bigger unit.

[cg5071]

i hope ro/di helps me! i have had the unit for awhile and i just ordered the booster pump. about every other day or so, i am cleaning frags with the toothbrush.

[MizTanks]

I still have my tooth brush too-sentimental reasons ya know. I'll post some before an after pics of the HA. You won't believe my tank survived.

[adalius]

I always strive to clean stuff naturally before I go manual/mechanical/chemical. So first step for me is to throw more of whatever eats it in the tank.

[MizTanks]

I tried turbos and just about every other kind of snail known to man, I tried a blue spot sea hare that touched nothing and then lodged itself into a hole that it couldn't get out of. I change my water source. I removed LR and scrubbed it, not recommended!! Algae came back to the cleaned spots 10 fold.
Here's what I believe finally worked for me. I bought some, STOP Hair Algae by Marin-Chem. Used it on the more infected places. This killed the algae within 2 days, with NO negative effects at all on my tank. I did lose some zoas due to applying the chemical directly on them ( couldn't be helped) I then started using my new tap filter. I also hooked up my second chamber using 2 tiny pieces of LR, a small clump of cheato and a nano 3w led. I'm also running Chemipure Elite and a bag of Purigen. My tank is now 100% HA free!