New guy question!

Saltydog22 · Jul 2, 2012

Hi everyone this is my first problem my live rock is been in my new nano cube for 1 and half weeks cycling has started, and in 3 days I have a brown ish colored alge all overs the place its worse on my sand and as long as I leave the light on it doubles so now no lights but I need it to help the rocks but I am going to do a water change but is there any chemical I can add to do away with it fast? Thanks saltydog22

J Rog · Jul 2, 2012

Thats called diatoms.. It sucks.. but its a normal part of the cycling process..

Saltwatertaylor · Jul 2, 2012

Just wait it out. Its a natural part of the cycling process as stated above. You can syphon it out from the sand. Once the cycle is complete you can get a clean up crew to polish up your tank :)

BarbH · Jul 2, 2012

Hello and welcome to r2r and to the hobby :welcome: As has been stated what you are seeing is diatoms, a completely natural thing that you see in new tanks. This will clear up on its own. While letting your tank cycle I would go ahead and leave the lights off, since all they will do at this point is to encourage unwanted algae growth. Do you know what the levels of your ammonia and nitrites are at? Don't worry about adding any chemicals to your tank at this time.

uall8up · Jul 2, 2012

Welcome to R2R!!! I agree with everyone. No worries, just a nasty part of a cycle!

Steelerfan747 · Jul 2, 2012

Unfortunately there is nothing you could do but wait. It will start to clear up once the tank has cycled and all the levels start reaching there norm

Cooper32803 · Jul 2, 2012

I had a bad case of that when my Biocube was finishing its cycle... It went away in about a week but that was with help from my clean up crew I am sure... It isnt pretty, but at least its a good thing :)

wysiwyg · Jul 2, 2012

yup natural part of cycling next youll notice little dots with legs those will be hydroids

revhtree · Jul 2, 2012

Welcome to R2R!

We appreciate your membership!

Thanks for joining and please make sure and post often!

Loki · Jul 2, 2012

Diatoms. They usually only show up at the end of a cycle. Do you have a test kit? if so what is your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate reading? It would be a good idea to test these parameters every two-three days until your ammonia and nitrite are both 0.

Once they hit 0 I would add a small fish and a small clean up crew (snails, crabs, etc). Retest the above every couple of days just so you know what your tank is doing. There will probably be a little spike in ammonia a few days after adding the fish. It wil go away shortly.