Water change?

[nemo2]

I am a little uncertain about what to donext with my 29 G Biocube. It has been set up for 1 month. It has cycled, and is reading 0 for Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. I have a good amount of cleaning crew, and I added my first fish, a Royal Gramma, 6 days ago. I have a significant increase in algae, and I was wondering if a 10-15% water change would be okay? or do I just let it do its thing for a while? Please any advice would be great!

 

[bgrae001]

I don't think that it will hurt. All new tanks go through an algae cycle. Sometimes it can last for weeks.
How long are you running your lights?

 

[nemo2]

My Actinic are on a 12 hour sched. and the daylight bulbs about 9 hours. Should I shorten it?

 

[nycbob]

try to shorten it. as stated above, it is part of the cycle.

 

[nemo2]

Thanks for the reply.

 

[new2salt1]

I wouldn't shorten it. I would get an aquarium brush and brush the LR with algae on it. Then I would vaccum up only the substrate overtaken by algae. Algae multiplies MUCH faster when there is significant established growth. By removing it, you diminish its ability to quicky spread.
After vaccuming, I would lay some new substrate and see if that helps. I like doing this with a new tank anyway because any pods that died off during the cycle can be replenished by re-seeding the substrate.
If you decide to cut the time, you may stunt the algae growth. But if you are going to house coral, you are going to want to be at 12+ hours of daylight.
If you do cut it, you want to gradually lower the daylight hours. I wouldnt just go from 12 to 9. Cut it 1/2 hour a day if you feel you must.
The tank is not getting natural light through a window or anything, is it?

 

[nemo2]

Originally Posted by New2Salt1
I wouldn't shorten it. I would get an aquarium brush and brush the LR with algae on it. Then I would vaccum up only the substrate overtaken by algae. Algae multiplies MUCH faster when there is significant established growth. By removing it, you diminish its ability to quicky spread.
After vaccuming, I would lay some new substrate and see if that helps. I like doing this with a new tank anyway because any pods that died off during the cycle can be replenished by re-seeding the substrate.
If you decide to cut the time, you may stunt the algae growth. But if you are going to house coral, you are going to want to be at 12+ hours of daylight.
If you do cut it, you want to gradually lower the daylight hours. I wouldnt just go from 12 to 9. Cut it 1/2 hour a day if you feel you must.
The tank is not getting natural light through a window or anything, is it?
No my tank does no get any natural light. I haven't changed my liht schedule yet. I di do a water change yeterday, and cleaned off quite a bit of the algae on the LR. I beleive the algae I have is Diatoms? I am wondering if its growth spiked again do to the adddition of food to the tank. It seemed to start when I started feeding my new fish. Maybe an increase in nutrients to the water?