diatom bloom?
- Thread starter ntvflgirl
- Start date
marine fanatic
Member
Start using better quality water like R/O from a LFS or similar supplier. Do your regular water changes and in a short time you should begin to see it vanish and stay gone as long as your water conditions are at least normal. Also keep an eye on overfeeding, excess nutrients in the water can cause growth of unwanted algae.
azrile
Member
I've heard/read that a diatom bloom while the tank is cycling is natural, and will occur with any water. When the tank nears the end of cycling, the good algae will crowd out the diatoms, which will die off. My actual diatom bloom only lasted about 4-7days.
I wouldn't worry about it now. Also, don't do a water change, it will slow down your cycling.
I wouldn't worry about it now. Also, don't do a water change, it will slow down your cycling.
clarkiiboi
Active Member
agree with Azrile, I still use tap at this point and time, just check your water source and make sure the trAtes and Phosphates arent off the wall. If so you will need to better the water source, I get a low reading of both, but am gonna try other alternatives and see what happens. P.s. If your water is like mine, you will get some green algea over the sand, I for now have solved the problem with some small crabs, but that is just temp, problem is the water. later 
ntvflgirl
Member
My nitrates are zero at this point...10 days into the cycle, but I don't have a test kit for phosphates. Is this critical? Also, I hear some people buy their ro water at Walmart. What is it called? It's not reverse osmosis water. Where is it in the store, and what kind of water does it say on the container? Or is it the kind you fill yourself in the front of the store? Just wondering...I've been looking for it, and can't find it.
azrile
Member
I'm pretty sure it has R/O right on the label. I bought about 20 gallons awhile ago. You can also use distilled water, it is different but still good.
If you use the same LFS, and they know your face. It is quite easy to take them a sample of your tap water and ask them to test for phosphates and nitrates. Depending on your city, you probably should ask them to test for copper too. If you are going to have invertabrates (shrimp, corals etc) you cannot have any copper in your tank.
Just be patient with your tank cycling. The only thing you should be testing yourself are Ammonia, nitrites, pH and salinity. Ammonia should hit 0 pretty soon, nitrites will take awhile. You can probably relax and only test once per week. Your nitrates will stay low for awhile. What is happening is you don't have the bacteria necessary to make nitrates yet. That is why you have ammonia and nitrites. I would not even bother testing for nitrates until your nitrites are 0. Your fish do not produce nitrates... your fish produce ammonia, which gets turned into nitrites, then another bacteria turns nitrites into nitrates. You need to get all those bacteria growing until you see nitrates. After your tank has cycled, then you need to figure out how to deal with nitrates. One method is water changes (5-10% monthly), another is macroalgae.
After that, it really depends on what you plan to do. I am back to using tap water because it is relatively safe, with only trace amounts of phospates. However, I have a 20gal refugium that has a ton of macroalgae growing in it. The algae removes the phospates from the water, along with nitrates. The more diversity you have in your tank, the more you can get away with.
If you use the same LFS, and they know your face. It is quite easy to take them a sample of your tap water and ask them to test for phosphates and nitrates. Depending on your city, you probably should ask them to test for copper too. If you are going to have invertabrates (shrimp, corals etc) you cannot have any copper in your tank.
Just be patient with your tank cycling. The only thing you should be testing yourself are Ammonia, nitrites, pH and salinity. Ammonia should hit 0 pretty soon, nitrites will take awhile. You can probably relax and only test once per week. Your nitrates will stay low for awhile. What is happening is you don't have the bacteria necessary to make nitrates yet. That is why you have ammonia and nitrites. I would not even bother testing for nitrates until your nitrites are 0. Your fish do not produce nitrates... your fish produce ammonia, which gets turned into nitrites, then another bacteria turns nitrites into nitrates. You need to get all those bacteria growing until you see nitrates. After your tank has cycled, then you need to figure out how to deal with nitrates. One method is water changes (5-10% monthly), another is macroalgae.
After that, it really depends on what you plan to do. I am back to using tap water because it is relatively safe, with only trace amounts of phospates. However, I have a 20gal refugium that has a ton of macroalgae growing in it. The algae removes the phospates from the water, along with nitrates. The more diversity you have in your tank, the more you can get away with.
clarkiiboi
Active Member
ntvflgirl
To answer your Walmart Questions, page back to Aug 26th under post "Question for NaCl-H20, and Aug 28th, post "Sinner's Girl..got a question", both by me and the answers are there about the water. It's Walmart's Distilled Great Value Brand, that is from another post by NaCl H20 but I searched and the person must of erased it, cant find it, but anyways my two post should answer your questions.
To answer your Walmart Questions, page back to Aug 26th under post "Question for NaCl-H20, and Aug 28th, post "Sinner's Girl..got a question", both by me and the answers are there about the water. It's Walmart's Distilled Great Value Brand, that is from another post by NaCl H20 but I searched and the person must of erased it, cant find it, but anyways my two post should answer your questions.