CYCLE MALFUNCTION

[nanoreefboy]

I had just bought a tank a 10 gallon nano with live rock in it and I started the cycling process while dosing it a cup of microbacteria a day. I woke up to a bunch of white hair algae as it looks like pictured and I am unsure what to do I cleaned it off before I went to sleep completely and woke up to it there again I wasn’t using any lighting on the tank at all during the previous 4 days!! Please help

 

[HalfHand]

I'm also pretty new to the hobby, but that looks more bacterial than algae. You have also been dosing it with bacteria daily? How long has it been cycling? how are your parameters?

 

[nanoreefboy]

I’ve been putting a half cup of micro bacterial daily and it’s started Sunday my cycle process! If it’s bacteria instead of algae would that be a good thing ?

 

[HalfHand]

I’ve been putting a half cup of micro bacterial daily and it’s started Sunday my cycle process! If it’s bacteria instead of algae would that be a good thing ?

I let mine cycle almost a month before doing anything and i started with dry rock, but you started with live rock so that would cut your cycle time down and introduce bacteria to the tank without the addition of micro bacteria. Get a test kit or borrow one from someone else in the hobby and see where you stand with nitrates, ph, etc and make adjustments as needed. Developments happen pretty slowly, give it some time to see how it progresses.

-since no lights were on it there is a small chance it is photosynthetic algae, more likely bacteria (imo). test the water, do a water change maybe, after another week or two look into getting some snails perhaps. if it persists i would go to the nuisance forum and see if anyone has posted about something previously.

hope it goes well!

 

[aSaltyKlown]

Is that half a US cup? That seems like an awful lot, what micro bacteria are you using?

 

[nanoreefboy]

Is that half a US cup? That seems like an awful lot, what micro bacteria are you using?

I meant a cap full a day the cap on the bottle