The Puffer Forum

Today was the day! I moved my dragon gobies in to my SW display tank and they seem to love it! When I was transferring them I used a rectangular food container so I could measure them without taking them out of the water. The oldest is 17.5 inches, the middle one is 16 inches, and the little (and I imagine the female) is 9.75 inches. They all found homes instantly in the LR caves and tunnels and became bright violet, absolutely stunning!

Violet? Any pictures?

Not yet, they got in the tank and stirred up a dust storm. I have to let that settle and then I'll post pics.

Hurrah! Is that skimmer working?

Overtime!

Believe it or not, they have been called Violet Gobies in some books and articles (but there are also other gobies with similar color) - that is what they should show.

Just an update on these guys. After a few days of settling in they have really taken off! Typical DG's they hide in the rock work and come out to eat when I offer them food. I didn't think their color could get any prettier but it has! I have had a diatom bloom in the tank and as soon as I get that cleared up I will post pics!

Freshly set tank? If so, diatom bloom may well be transitory. Soluble silicate titers sufficient to give a bloom in new tanks are pretty common. Titer high enough to support much diatom coverage in older tanks is much less common.

I usually use RO/DI so I don't have diatom blooms but my RO/DI housing cracked and I had to do a water change with treated tap. We have very high Silicate levels in our city water, about 50 ppm, because the aquifer is all sand and granite gravel overlying solid crystalline granite base. The water treatment plant here does not do anything to reduce the numbers. If I use it without running it through RO/DI I have a continuous diatom growth. It really shows in my FW tanks that I do not filter. I'm going to get out the microscope and get some pictures of the different diatoms. They are really interesting looking but I really don't care for them in my tank....

Oh, yes, by the way, you are correct this is a new tank. Relatively 45 days old. I had to do a WC with tap in my GSP tank, about 3 years old, and also had a diatom bloom shortly there after....

The phosphate resins also collect soluble silicates, so it can serve as a pre-treatment, but you them have to replenish the needed phosphate post-extraction. Those resins do not recharge, so with your volumes it is not cheap, but it it does work. With those levels your SW tanks will look like inshore reefs - all brown.

Micrographs of diatom tests are beautiful. I used to know a guy in the labs who was fixated on them - his walls were covered. He used my interference 'scopes to photograph them - I only rarely used those, they were PITAs to keep in focus for time-lapse, which was one of my big interest then.