Too early in the cycle stage for brown algea?

[nflnutswif]

Please no flame throwing, on my cycling this new 20 w/ a damsel, Im water changing to alleviate too much stress on him. But I'm already getting brown algea on everything and haven't seen a spike in the water (RO). Is'nt this too early for that? almost 2 weeks into the process.

 

[aaron childs]

I know I asked the question about the 20 ... But I have a 20 right now ... 20 long ...and I cycled it with 3 damsels ... Your talking about an ammonia spike, right?
Something should be happening if the algae is accumulating...

 

[nflnutswif]

Something is definately happening and I'm sure it's on it's way through a cycle, but the water parameters are high but stready, no spike or dramatic change and I have brown algea everywhere. I did not treat the live figi rock just plopped it in the tank. Is that why maybe?

 

[lilredcmc]

Brown algae in a NEW tank is called a diatom bloom, and this is okay. Diatoms are food for your growing bacteria. They need it to increase their population. this is what i have learned and been told from all my researching. i also noticed that when i added a small piece of white lr it turned brown for a few days and now it is turning purple, red and some other colors so i don't worry about the brown algae anymore.

 

[nflnutswif]

That's kinda why I'm curious because at the bloom stage it's usually OK to get your cleanup crew in the tank, But my cycle is only 2 weeks old! Way too early I thought!
Just wondering what's going on, guess I'll take the water tests more frequently!

 

[cowpoke]

Nfl
I had the same situation as you do now.
Diatoms early in the cycle, but it was an indicator of my cycle very close to being done.

 

[lilredcmc]

that is the hardest part about sw. waiting for the cycle. they say to let your tank cycle for at least 6 weeks. so what i did was got it up and running then started another project to distract me until the 6 weeks was up. that helped the time fly by!!

 

[nflnutswif]

Good advice, the only problem is. . .my new project to pass the time would be to start a NEW tank!!!!

It's addicting!
I'll wait it out!

 

[lilredcmc]

patience young grasshopper!!

 

[nflnutswif]

:joy:

 

[wbilton]

when my tank was about 2 weeks old it was covered in diatoms, started with a couple of tubos and a few hermits, that helped alot. Tank is now 5 months old, turbos and hermits are still doing fine.

 

[nflnutswif]

My readings are still pretty high I cant do any critters yet can I?
Ammonia is not too bad. But im doing water changes for the damsel.
:thinking:

 

[ericholcek]

the more water changes you do the longer the tank is going to take to cycle. Just let things be till everything reads 0.

 

[nflnutswif]

Like I said a little earlier I was doing the water changes to alleviate stress from the damsel, but the tank is cycling quickly. I'll leave it alone and see what happens, but am I right it is too soon for cleanup guys?
:notsure:

 

[wbilton]

what are your water parameters?

 

[nflnutswif]

OK, gotta bump this one back up there!
PH 8.4
salinity 1.023
nitrites .25
nitrates 5.0
ammonia .25
temp 78
Damsel and Live rock/sand are cycling this tank. Diatom bloom not getting any worse, I kicked up the air flow to help that.
The baby star fish I found in my other tank we put into the new one. Now can I put a clean up crew in there?
It's only been two weeks!
:help:

 

[dragonboy]

I'm on my third week of cycle my diatoms are still here so I guess I would have to wait another 2 or 3 weeks to see if they will die down. But I start to see green algae now. Also I lost a bit of coralline on my rock its abit bleached on some rocks. My green coralline seems to do pretty well its spreading more than my purple coralline.