Algae? Too much food?

[andymi]

Ok, it has been one week since I setup the tank. Everything seems to be going fine, I have not lost any live rock or anything. I just checked the levels and all is fantastic. One thing I did notice is that it seems like I am getting a brown covering on part of my sand in the tank. Is this a form of algae? Am I feeding too much food? I am feeding what they enough for them to eat in just a couple of minutes, some hits the bottom, but I look later and it is gone. How do I keep this tank clean during the cycle? I started with 40lbs of live rock and 60lbs of sand including 20lbs of live sand. I dont want this thing to get out of control before the cycle is even done. Should I add a cleanup crew? Will they survive the cycle?
--Andy

 

[b_ball12_99]

Great! They are diatoms and appear while the tank is cycling. Do not add a clean up crew yet. They won't survive the cycle. The brown diatoms will go away or turn into good green algea near the end of the cycle. Can't stop them and you don't want to either. Its not from over feeding. Just wait it out. When nitrates and ammo. drop then you can add a cleaning crew. Good luck!

 

[andymi]

Everything is at normal levels right now. Nothing is elevated past normal. I was told by one person at the LFS(customer) who did the same thing as I did, (same products, live rock etc) that their tank cycled in 10 days. Is it even possible that this tank has already cycled with the products and such that I added? Should I wait another week just to make sure? I would suspect that in 2 weeks my levels would elevate at least something noticeable so I know it is going or has completed right? (the cycle that is) Because as of this morning here are my levels:
pH = 8.0
Ammonia < 0.0
Nitrate < 10 (looked lower than what was on scale)
Nitrite 0
Temp: 78 deg
I dont have a phosphate or calcium test kit, so I cannot give you those levels. I am trying to be patient, but I did one check last week and did one today (7 days apart) and not one thing has changed. I did nothing in between the 7 days. What are your thoughts, I dont mind waiting
--Andy
P.S. The live sand I used was natures ocean. Do you think the cycle has completed already?
[ May 19, 2001: Message edited by: andymi ]