That's incredibly fast for diatoms. With that kind
of diatom growth, your turbos should be doing great.
Are the turbos making paths on the glass? What about
the sand and the gravel, how's it looking? What's
causing your turbos to die?

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


KurtG wrote on 6/10/2007 7:45 PM:
Wayne Sallee wrote:
But I would not worry about trying to take silicates out of the water.

Well, I think I convinced myself that I have very low silicates in my
RO/DI water and tank. It looks like my tap water is about 2ppm, but my
tank seems to have undetectable levels. My test is sensitive down to
about 0.03.

My diatoms are thick and unsightly. Within a few hours of cleaning the
tank, I have a green haze back on the glass. Within 2-3 days, I can't
even see through the glass. I'm down to only two turbos, but I have 50
ordered (still). My order is being held up, but it will ship this week.

I think I'll just work on a refugium to grow chaeto and pods, and not
worry about the diatoms for the moment.

--Kurt