Day 16 - Here we go... Diatoms

The tank's day started rather dreadful. Basically it went like this:

Lights went on. And I went OMG brown dust everywhere. Rocks, glass, sand everywhere. I can see it slowly developing, luckily they do steer clear of my corals due to chemical warfare between the corals and diatoms.

For those who don't know what are diatoms, in layman terms they are some algae which looks like brown dust. They tend to bloom sometime after a tank finishes its cycle. No way you can avoid it. It's a natural occurrence that Mother Nature put in place to ensure the ecosystem starts off well. 'Why?' you may ask, I think its because diatoms consume extra nutrients and silicates, helps to make sure there aren't too much in the tank to counteract against the growth of your corals. Diatoms technically do not harm corals but they are definitely unsightly... Would you rather a brown dusty beach or pearl white beach? Exactly.

Had a short conversation with Bing and it seems like the diatoms should be around for a month or 2, I decided to just let nature run it's course, but to aid its progress, I will switch over from Ultraphos to Rowaphos, I believe its effective in removing phosphates and silicates since many reefers swear by it. I had already started running some AF Zeomix and RedSea ReefSpec carbon since I got my fishes in so my nutrients are pretty stable.

I added a picture to show how it looks like, kinda minor at the moment but definitely will x3-x8 times the quantity over a week or 2. As you can see its no longer pearly white sand, brown dust everywhere.

Aside from that I started my dosing regime as well, 3ml of RedSea's AB+ every 3 days, 10ml of Acropower once per week and 3ml daily dose of  TLF C-Balance A and B. Corals are doing pretty well but I do want to put more fishes in... Recently added a 5inch yellow tang since Hawaii introduced a ban to stop fishing for the aquarium trade, who knows when it will be lifted. 1 yellow tang used to be $60-80 but due to the limited quantity available on the market right now, it surged up to a wooping $200. I know Singapore prices aren't that big of a surge because I did see stores in other parts of the world asking for a $3000 price tag.

I thought of some fishes I want though:

3x female anthias (evansi or purple queen, I do want a blotchy... but I just don't have the luck to keep them, tried 3 times and they didn't last very long. Hefty price tag too.)
2x clownfish (Probably some designer ones)
1x goby + pistol shrimp pair
1x wrasse (no idea what I want. Maybe a sixline or rhomboid, sorry but not really a wrasse person)