How To Control A Diatom Bloom in the Reef Aquarium

If your coral reef aquarium is less than 4 months old and the primary problem that you're having involves a light red brown dusting on your glass and rocks, then your tank is undergoing a diatom bloom. How can you control this bloom? By hiring some good reef janitors that will control the diatom algae. Add to your aquarium both Cerith and Nerite snails. Collectively they're an amazing cleaning gang.
Cerith Snails
Cerith snails are good herbivores to let in in the reef tank. They stay very small and they won't upset any of the landscaping. They're occasionally included as a hitchhiker on live rock. The are not effective versus hair algae, but they are effective with diatoms and cyanobacteria and can add to the variety of the cleanup crew when utilized with additional types of snails. Cerith snails clean in a zigzag pattern. Its radula is capable of removing diatoms so substantially that the diatoms do not regrow from the original algal film.
Nerite Snails
Nerite Snails are marvelous scavengers for reef aquariums as they stay small and with their rounded shells, seldom knock over rocks or corals in the aquarium. Live rock provides algae, cyanobacteria, and diatoms for food, but it also is a good film algae eater, grazing on other surfaces, such as the sides of the aquarium.
So, if your coral reef aquarium is distressing from a diatom bloom, then make a point to add Cerith and Nerite snails and eventually they'll have your aquarium free of the threatening algae called diatoms.