your opinion is needed!

[mike j]

Here's the deal. The guy at my LFS only sold me a nitrite test kit when I bought my stuff since he said he had some good master test kits coming in soon and this would only be temporary.
I have tons of brown algae on the rocks and am getting it growing on the equipment in the tank (powerheads, skimmer, etc.) I have heard you only get this stuff when your tank is cycled. I have had it running for a week now and the nitrites have been zero for the last 4 days. What is going on?
Thanks for the help!

 

[chevron tang]

what are your water parameters? how often do you feed? what are your phosphates? (well i guess that last question would fall under water parameters ohwell).

 

[mike j]

I just have LR in there now and the only test I have is nitrite right now. pH is 8.1 and temp is 78, thats all I know really.

 

[broomer5]

Hi Mike,
Having the nitrite test kit is good, but will only tell part of the story. Sort of like wearing blinders - you'll only see the middle of the picture - which is only 1/3 of the cycling process, especially if it's reading zero.
Without knowing if you're ammonia spiked, and if you've got any accumulation of nitrate, well .... you're either at the beginning stages of the cycle or almost done. Who knows.
Cycling a tank with a lot of live rock sometimes produces a cycle that does not fit the traditional nitrogen cycle curves. It can happen very fast, and if you're not testing for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate often during the process - you may miss it entirely.
I would agree that if you're getting brown diatoms on the rock or substrate - chances are you've moved through the cycle - but that's just a guess here, and not a hard fast rule etched in stone.
You asked "what is going on" and that is exactly right. Without the 3 test kits results - you can never really be sure.

 

[mike j]

thats what I thought. Thanks a lot broomer, that was very helpful.