Diatom algea

sggavin

sggavin

Member
is it a good sign when the brown diatom algea turns green, or is this bad, it has pretty much taken over my tank. The tank is cycling right now and i just added about 20lbs of fiji live rock from this site. Seeing that it is cycling i cant add any cleaners, should i just wait it out?
 
oceanjumper

oceanjumper

Member
Yes, wait it out. It might disappear by itself. If not, once added, the snails will do it for you.
I have my white lights on for 8 hrs, blue for 10. Longer gives me more algae as well. By the way, if you get green algae already, it looks to me you're likely done cycling. Have you measured your water parameters recently?
 
gregzbobo

gregzbobo

Member
What color are your lights? They MIGHT be the culprit in making the algea just look green, long shot, but possible, especially after seeing your pic. How long has your tank been running? Diatoms from what I've experienced and read don't normally appear till right after the cycle is over, or is very nearly over at least.
 
sggavin

sggavin

Member
the tank has been running for 2 weeks, its not the lights, ive noticed a "Drastic" color change. the only thing showing up on my water tests is .50 of ammonia.
 
gregzbobo

gregzbobo

Member
Weird, but yeah, still cycling. If you have no fish in there, you might consider putting a small cocktail shrimp in the water to speed the cycle, and not run any lights at all till the cycle is complete. The coralline MAY experience a slight die-off, but should come back if that happens. Most coralline can stand low light levels anyway. With no lights, the problem algea should die back in some days time.
 
gregzbobo

gregzbobo

Member
Thats really about it. Your nitrates need not be zero though, nitrates aren't harmful except in fairly large amounts, say over 10-20 ppm. 30-40 is generally tolerated by most creatures, but corals and some shrimp may not like it much.
 
sggavin

sggavin

Member
ok, thanks my ammonia is starting to go down a bit, havent seen a change in the trites yet tho. Cycling sucks :)
 
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