Are my silicates causing my brown diatoms?

[michael]

This is the water test for the four items in my city tap water.

Phosphorus; Phosphate: 0.0022 mg/L ; 0.0007mg/L

Silicon; reactive silicate: 0.50 mg/L; 0.40mg/L

I do not know what is classified to high for silicates in a fresh water aquarium. I have lots of brown diatoms.

My phosphates seem to be low.

I am not sure if I should buy a polyfilter and seachem purigen or buy a silicate test kit and seachem phosGuard. What would you recommend??

[exv152]

Diatoms are common with new setups and can sometimes take up to six months or so to go away completely, but there are fish that relish this type of aglae, fish like oto cats eat it up like crazy. Contrary to some erroneous info out there on the net - phosphates do not cause algae. However, the low silicates could well be the issue, together with the presence of ammonia. But like I said, this is nothing to be concerned with, in time the diatoms will go away as your tank become more biologically sound. Or you can remove them manually or with fish.

[michael]

My tank has been up for three years thats why I was asking. It does not seem to go away. My test kits test 0 for ammonia.

I do not get this brown algae in my tropical tanks only in goldfish tanks.

[exv152]

My tank has been up for three years thats why I was asking. It does not seem to go away. My test kits test 0 for ammonia.

I do not get this brown algae in my tropical tanks only in goldfish tanks.

This is not uncommon. Diatoms can appear in just about any setup, although newer ones are more prone to it, the fact is all tanks can get it. The best thing is manual removal or employ the use of some otos to clean it up. Most elect to go with the otos because it represents less intense maintenance/labour. You can also add some absorbent media, but it's really not worth the extra expense in my opinon. You probably get it in your goldfish tanks because they are dirty eaters and produce a fair amount of waste/ammonia even if your test kit doesn't see it, it's there. Maybe look at reducing the goldfish population of the tank.