Does carbon cause diatom blooms?

[Mugster]

Has anyone else experienced this before? Each and every time I use carbon in my tank I end up with a diatom bloom the next day. I've tried a couple different brands of carbon with the same result each time. As soon as the carbon is removed the diatom bloom disappears. :confused:

[Greg Moore]

Are you sure it is diatoms? They are pretty much silicate lovers and that shouldn't be part of even cheap carbon. There are a few with phosphates high enough to cause a mini algae bloom..

Are you rinsing the carbon in tap water, or doing anything else at the same time?

Greg Moore

[Mugster]

They're definitely diatoms. I do rinse well with tap water but I also try to hang the bag long enough to drain as much out as possible. I do admit the first carbon used was of cheaper quality but the second time I used a better quality (or so I thought) carbon. And no I wasn't doing anything else at the time such as additives.

[Breef]

If possible try rinsing next time with R.O. water. Just to see if it makes a difference.

[Kutter]

Or rinse with tap water and then dip into RO water to wash away any of the tap water elements.

[Dman]

I agree with vitz on this one, what are you trying to accomplish with carbon?
Is there a specific impurity you are trying to remove?
I pretty much stopped using carbon a long time ago as well, just once a year perhaps twice to aid in the removal of that yellow tint. It's not removed from the system by skimming and I only do water changes about twice a year.
Dman
:spin:

[Mugster]

Thanks for all the help everyone. It's not that I was using carbon on a regular basis, just that each time I did use it I was experiencing the diatom blooms. It may or may not have been caused by the carbon, that's why I posted the question to see if anyone else had the same experience. I have since discontinued the use of carbon.