what is this???

[thewolfman777]

i just noticed today when i got home from work this brown stuff on my upper most portion of my l/r. it was not as abundant when i left for work 16 hours ago. i believe this is a diatom bloom. if you look closely at it, it looks like little hairs. if this is a diatom bloom, is it good or bad. what creates a diatom bloom. shoould i try to get rid of it, or will it eventually go away on its own? the only thing i have done recently was change my old florescent light to a 10000k 20 watt bulb. does the lighting have anything to do with this? like i said it is only on the upper most portion, closest to the lighting on my l/r. it has not spread to my subtrate yet. if some of you guys can spread some light on the topic, i would appreciate it. thanks
if it makes a difference my tank is almost fully cycled. i would like to say it is done cycling but i am unsure my test kits are accurate. i had my ammo rise and fall, but it never went any lower than .25, my trites rose and now and have been at 0 for about a week, trates are in between 20 and 40 but is hard to tell with this specific test kit. ph @ 8.2, sg @ 1.022. thanks again all...

 

[stupid_naso]

I do think it is a diatom bloom. And as far as I know, it is a good thing. It happened to me after couple of weeks after I setup my tank, then it all fades away, probably because I put a sally lightfoot in .
For the tank to fully, fully cycle takes awhile, more than one or two months, it might take years, who knows. Just watch those water parameters. Hope that helps, I know how it feels waiting for replies...
stupid_naso

 

[partonks]

Along the same lines, I managed to never have a major diatom bloom in my tank during the cycle. However, I am now ravaged with green hair algae. I have a good clean up crew, they just cannot keep up with it. All my water levels are good (including phosphates) nitrates are at 2.5. Anyone have any advice, or is this a phase as well. My tank has been up for 6 months.
Thanks,
Kevin

 

[jonthefb]

Yeah it sounds like you are almost to the end of your cycle, but there is more to a "cycle" than meets the eye. When mst people refer to a cycle the mean the whole ammonia, nitrites, nitrates cycle, and it is true that after this is done you can begin adding things to your tank slowely, but after the chem cycle, you are also going to go through an algae cycle, the first of which will appear are the diatoms, which sounds like what you are experienceing right now, later on you will see hair algae, and/or cyanobacteria, but the use of a good cleaner crew should be able to take care of these blooms.
Also the changing of your light could definately spark and algae bloom, because now you have a lot more light in your tank, of which, light utilizing organisms can now use to grow and reproduce. This happened in my 135, after i switched from power compact lighiting to metal halides. My tank almost totally turned green, but it will eventually stabilize and you will have a beautiful tank to enjoy!
good luck!
jon