Diatoms

drew2005

drew2005

Active Member
Im having a big outbreak. At least i think its diatom. Its brown spots, some hairy on rocks. Im about 4 and a half weeks into my cycle. Should i even bother to clean it off the glass or am i wasting my time? I have one of those magfloats. Its on the glass, rocks(some hairy), overflowbox, sand(lots of die off too.
 
teen

teen

Active Member
is ur cycle done? its most likely diatoms, and they may go away on there own, or i think ur clean up crew will take care of them when ur tank finishers cycling.
 
teen

teen

Active Member
did ur ammonia already spike and then fall to zero? or its been at zero? u mght wanna do a water change in a few days and then wait like a week and keep testing ur waters, and then if everything is good, then go ahead and add a clean up crew.
 
monalisa

monalisa

Active Member
Drew,
I was told that the diatoms appear when the trites spike. Given my source, I'm sure that's it. Also, I was told that they'll go away eventually. Be patient. :yes:
Lisa :happyfish
 
drew2005

drew2005

Active Member
Yea i saw the ammonia spike and the trites spike already. I guess ill give it another week, if no change ill then do a 10% water change. Ive been waitin almost a week for the trites to fall to 0. Im being very patient. Not rushing into anything. Plus i havent seen any hitchhikers or pods or anything for that matter.
 
malounsbury

malounsbury

Member
Have you tested your nitrites today? You said you tested two days ago and test every two days. You nitrites should be at zero, and then your cycle is done and you can do a water change but don't do a change until that reading is zero.
 
mudplayerx

mudplayerx

Active Member
Your nitrites should be zero and you nitrates should be below 10 before you add any critters. I would do weekly 10-15% water changes until your numbers go down. If you have live sand or live rock in your tank then the numbers will go down eventually on their own.
 
malounsbury

malounsbury

Member
He has LR in the tank, or so the pictures show. The nitrites should go down on their own since he does have LR, like mudplayer said.
 
drew2005

drew2005

Active Member
ok just tested water again....
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - .25
Nitrate - 80ppm
PH - 7.8
SG - 1.024
Temp - 80
Nitrite is down from .50. It was .50 for exactly a week. My ammonia has been 0 since April 27. Highest nitrite i had was 2.0 and that was after i added additional semi-cured LR. Before the additional rock it spiked at 5.0. Once the nitrite hits 0, im gonna do a water change and that will hopefully bring the nitrate down to at least 20 and raise my ph to at least 8.0.
 
malounsbury

malounsbury

Member
Your nitrate should be much lower than 20ppm before adding livestock I believe. Someone else once said that nitrates aren't as threatening as nitrites, but think of it as smog when living in a city, its annoying. Which tests are you using?
 
drew2005

drew2005

Active Member
I have the saltwater master test kit from Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. I gotta order the alk, calc, phos solutions once i get some livestock in there.
 
farmboy

farmboy

Active Member
Drew,
Don't worry about not seeing any pods. There kinda like seeing a shooting star. Real fast and then you're like, "was that a. . . .?". They will come out.
 
drew2005

drew2005

Active Member
HOLY OUTBREAK! :D Ive got brown crap everywhere. Seems like its more where my lighting shines. :hilarious
 
monalisa

monalisa

Active Member
Originally Posted by Farmboy
Drew,
Don't worry about not seeing any pods. There kinda like seeing a shooting star. Real fast and then you're like, "was that a. . . .?". They will come out.

Boy isn't THAT the truth!! Just been finding the little buggers, but only because I've just started doing the flashlight dance...GREAT fun!! I even have little worms and pods crawling all over my BASE rock!! hmmmm...is that normal?
Lisa :happyfish
 
drew2005

drew2005

Active Member
Originally Posted by MonaLisa
Boy isn't THAT the truth!! Just been finding the little buggers, but only because I've just started doing the flashlight dance...GREAT fun!! I even have little worms and pods crawling all over my BASE rock!! hmmmm...is that normal?
Lisa :happyfish
See i tried that and i didnt see anything. :thinking:
 
farmboy

farmboy

Active Member
Be patient Grasshoppers!
"If you build it, they will come."
My tank cycled about 2 weeks ago, and today i've seen many pods out in the open.
Also, they came out during the "on" lighting cycle. My coraline is starting to come back and even is growing on some "reef bones" we used for base. Salt water tanks are the COOLEST!
On a lesser note: The crabs are unimpressed by recent pod production. . . .
 
monalisa

monalisa

Active Member
Originally Posted by Farmboy
Be patient Grasshoppers!
"If you build it, they will come."
My tank cycled about 2 weeks ago, and today i've seen many pods out in the open.
Also, they came out during the "on" lighting cycle. My coraline is starting to come back and even is growing on some "reef bones" we used for base. Salt water tanks are the COOLEST!
On a lesser note: The crabs are unimpressed by recent pod production. . . .

Boy isn't that the truth!! My tank has is only about 3-3/12 weeks old. Critters all over the place...hope they're all good!! I'm getting my clean up crew from SWF.com this week. I'm taking water parameters like a mad-woman, all good. Water changes. Cripes, I get home from work and before I so much as greet my hubby, I'm doing maintenance on my tank!! He understands though and is excited about this new hobby...he got me (and our kids into scuba 2 years ago)...I think this might be deja vu for him...seems like just a flurry. It's all gonna happen. I'm getting some very nice coraline algea on my live rocks already.
What I really find interesting on this site, is that it seems that just as something is happening with my tank, someone else is posting about the same thing...I think that's great!! :jumping:
Hope everything goes well for you....
Lisa :happyfish
 
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