Getting rid of diatoms - no problem at all

If a brown coating covers the substrate of your aquarium and looks unattractive, let’s hope it is diatoms! The alternative would be smear algae - and they are not as easy to get rid of as diatoms.

Diatoms only look great under a microscope: They are among the most beautiful geometric forms in the plant kingdom. But without a microscope they are really ugly, although they do not disturb or negatively affect the fish at all. In the wild grazing cichlids of Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi even eat up a large percentage of the diatoms.

If there is a brownish coating in your aquarium, first quickly test whether they are really diatoms. Take a piece of the brownish coating between your fingers and rub it. If it feels rough, it will be diatoms. Smear algae always remain greasy when rubbed. Then use the JBL PROAQUATEST SiO2 Silicate to test the silicic acid content of the tap water with which you have filled your aquarium. By the way, the terms silicic acid and silicates are used synonymously (i.e. they mean the same) and they are the cause of diatoms. The pretty algae shells visible under the microscope are made of silicate. If the silicate content is above 0.8 mg/l, they can form these shells and cover our aquarium with the brown coating described above.

To get a grip on diatoms, you only have to remove the building structure, the silicic acid (silicates). Put a bag of JBL SilicatEx Rapid in your filter and the diatoms will recede and disappear completely after a short time. If the silicate test in your tap water shows a high silicate content, you really need to work permanently with a silicate remover in your filter. But as I said – smear algae would be much worse to deal with!

© 14.12.2018
Heiko Blessin
Heiko Blessin
Dipl.-Biologe

Tauchen, Fotografie, Aquaristik, Haie, Motorrad

Comments

A word about cookies before we continue

The JBL Homepage also uses several types of cookies to provide you with full functionality and many services: We require technical and functional cookies to ensure that everything works when you visit this website. We also use cookies for marketing purposes. This ensures that we recognise you when you visit our extensive site again, that we can measure the success of our campaigns and that the personalisation cookies allow us to address you individually and directly, adapted to your needs - even outside our website. You can determine at any time - even at a later date - which cookies you allow and which you do not allow (more on this under "Change settings").

The JBL website uses several types of cookies to provide you with full functionality and many services: Technical and functional cookies are absolutely necessary so that everything works when you visit this website. In addition, we use cookies for marketing purposes. You can determine at any time - even at a later date - which cookies you allow and which you do not (more on this under "Change settings").

Our data protection declaration tells you how we process personal data and what purposes we use the data processing for. tells you how we process personal data and what purposes we use the data processing for. Please confirm the use of all cookies by clicking "Accept" - and you're on your way.

Are you over 16 years old? Then confirm the use of all cookies with "Noticed" and you are ready to go.

Choose your cookie settings

Technical and functional cookies, so that everything works when you visit our website.
Marketing cookies, so that we recognize you on our pages and can measure the success of our campaigns.

PUSH messages from JBL

What are PUSH messages? As part of the W3C standard, web notifications define an API for end-user notifications that are sent to the user's desktop and/or mobile devices via the browser. Notifications appear on the end devices as they are familiar to the end user from apps installed on the device (e.g. emails). Notifications appear on the end user’s device, just like an app (e.g. for emails) installed on the device.

These notifications enable a website operator to contact its users whenever they have a browser open - it doesn’t matter whether the user is currently visiting the website or not.

To be able to send web push notifications, all you need is a website with a web push code installed. This allows brands without apps to take advantage of many of the benefits of push notifications (personalised real-time communications at just the right moment).

Web notifications are part of the W3C standard and define an API for end user notifications. A notification makes it possible to inform the user about an event, such as a new blog post, outside the context of a website.

JBL GmbH & Co. KG provides this service free of charge, and it is easy to activate or deactivate.