Algae during cycling

[Shilpan]

Hello I have just purchased an Aqua one 400 tank and am planning out my set up. I will be using 25kg of Dry rock. Nice and clean. I'll also use one or two pieces of live rock to provide good bacteria.

Still not sure if I will cure my rock, drain the water and then cycle the tank. Or cycle and cure at the same time.

Anyway, my question was during the cycling/curing process, I am told i will experience algae blooms, red, brown, green, all sorts. What should I do about these? Leave them as is? Scrub them off and remove from tank? Do regular water changes?

The LFS guy said don't touch the water or algae. Just let the tank sit on with pumps running and lights off for a few months and keep testing ammonia/nitrite/nitrate to see when the cycle is done. And keep adding fish food every day to feed the cycle so the ammonia eating bacteria don't die whilst the nitrite eating bacteria colony grows up. He said basically don't touch your tank. What do you guys think??

 

[bang guy]

With the lights off you're not going to get an algae bloom. This is a good thing. Algae interferes with the growth of bacteria colonies and should be avoided as much as possible during the tank cycle.

There is no reason to cure your rocks before using them to help cycle your tank. Cure & cycle at the same time in my opinion.

If you enjoy seeing the variety of critters that typically come with live rock then I recommend doing water changes when ammonia climbs above 0.5ppm. If you don't care about a diversity of critters then there is not need to change water unless ammonia gets really high like above 3.0ppm. At the high levels the bacteria colonies struggle to survive. In my opinion the more diversity in a tank the healthier it can be. It's your call though.

 

[Shilpan]

Thank you!

 

[2quills]

My method currently would be to cycle the tank first with lights off. This would prevent algae from getting out of control in the beginning as suggested. Once you're ready to add fish etc. is when I like to add macro algae to help buffer the tank from ammonia spikes.

You're going to get algae growth regardless. But giving it a special location in the system to flourish will help prevent it from taking over the whole tank.

 

[Shilpan]

Thanks for the advice! Yeah I like the idea of a refugium to be honest. Such a cool way to export nutrients!

And ahh I might just add live rock later in the cycle. Because I'll be buying like live rock from the shop's tank and putting it in. Like real live rock so it doesn't need curing. Their shop is 10mins from my house I expect basically no die off during transport.

 

[bang guy]

I love fresh live rock!! Keep in mind that most live rock in the store was in a boat for a week, sat in a box for a week before arriving at the store. It will still have interesting critters probably but don't think it was pulled out of the ocean yesterday.

On the other hand, years ago I ordered some aquacultured rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater. I made the order on a Monday, special order with some large and some medium sized rocks. Tuesday morning the diver harvested what I asked for and Tuesday afternoon I received the rock. There were still things crawling on the rock when I opened the box.

Of course, not all things on the rock are desirable, that's a downside to very fresh live rock.

 

[Shilpan]

Awesome! Oh that fresh live rock has been sitting in their store tank for 2 months. Once my tank cycles I'll add a piece to see the tank. Then I'll measure levels to make sure I'm not getting more ammonia and another re-cure. Shouldnt if I literally pull it out of their tank, drive home and put it straight into my tank eh?

 

[bang guy]

I agree, there'll not be much die-off if it goes straight from store to your tank. Even less if you put it in a bucket of tank water during the trip home