Cycling , curing, or diatoms ... I hate this waiting period.

[Jonathan blackwood]

So it's been a very long time since I've started a tank from ground zero. And it's been 2 weeks from day 1. Cycle with food and half cured live rock and fresh sand. The "brown algae" or "diatoms" are getting really bad and I always forget of I need to get a chance up crew to take care of it? Or let it just go away on its own? Or if I need to what? And some of its becoming a hair algae almost. ..

 

[cloak]

Check this out.

http://www.reefcleaners.org/nuisance-algae-id-guide

HTH.

 

[FlyinBryan]

Hang tight it all goes away. Adding CUC has a potential to kill them because of ammonia. Patience in this hobby is key to long term success!
I wait minimum 4 weeks, not a day earlier. Then I test! Its painful I know but hang in there!

 

[brandon429]

I feel this post is a direct example of group B rocks in your tank, they aren't partially cycled

http://reef2reef.com/threads/new-ta...d-cocktail-shrimp-live-rock-no-shrimp.214618/

and if that's the case, you've already started reefing there is no ramp up, so the real question is this:

how will you handle invasive growths 1000 days into the tank? they w be there w light, nonremoval, nongrazers, and food which is already present among benthic communities in live rock per the thread, it needs zero support or wait time. I see coralline

how do you think that thread impacts the state of your tank? in my opinion it means you can either begin hand guiding your tank until all the avail surfaces are covered in thick coralline or coral, and exclude algae there with less work, or you can let it set in and take your chances. you need to know that a very select group of reefers do not have algae, of any kind, nor invaders of any kind, from day 1 to day 3000 of documented tanks. having any invader is optional at any time, for sure. to me that's how to see your cycle.


leaving anything in your tank on purpose, as has been advised for 20+ yrs, keeps our tank restoration threads so full we can't remedy them all.

in hindsight, if we could change one thing about the last 20 yrs to change the way problem algae infects our tanks, what would that be? the current steady state of GFO, po4 detailing, nitrate detailing, isn't working we still have tons of algae tanks using those even before importing a simple invader the tank doesn't have a matched grazer for

that is a totally opposite way of seeing algae vs the norm, agreed. good thing it comes w 200 pages of tank correction threads as the source for the claim ~

the entire industry is built around you leaving all invaders in the tank and acting on the water only, but know that's only one option and we use the opposite option to restore uncountable tanks.

 

[dbrewsky]

this is normal and it doesn't matter whether you have "group a" or "group b" rock, this part of the cycle affects All new tanks whether it be a high tech hospital sterile tank or an aquarium filled with recently received live rock. Can you reduce your light intensity or duration during this initial new tank cycle?

 

[shred5]

Patients is the hardest part of this hobby sometimes.
Nitrogen cycle is not the only part of cycling a reef tanks and now a days with good quality cured rock you may not even see one.
After the nitrogen cycle comes the algae cycle which start with diatoms.
After that you usually get green cyano which will mix with red and then the green algae starts and some possible hair algae.
After the algae cycle is over than fish can slowly be introduced. If introduced too soon you end up with having to feed them and they produce ammonia and feces that help fuel the growth of this algae.
You then add fish slowly so your tank has a chance to build up bacteria to handle the extra load or it goes right back to algae again.

 

[brandon429]

Whoever farms algae on purpose is taking a risk that's all, doesn't sound like an off the wall claim, just that we can hand remove it as needed vs take any risk, and then that work trails off over time as the rocks mature and more coralline is added. my take was that if someone thinks their rocks aren't cycled when they are, that matters, and if they think that leaving X in the tank means it will go away, that needs to be changed to might go away but we could easily make it for sure go away. to me that's a neat way to see start times for aquariums with no arbitrary actions, all deliberate actions are whats restoring bad tanks in our correction threads. all starts with the cycle, IME

 

[brandon429]

http://reef2reef.com/threads/reef2reef-pest-algae-challenge-thread-hydrogen-peroxide.187042/page-12


the point of that thread isn't to make you dump chems in your tank. you can see each post is me trying to have people not do that

you might consider this thread, and its linked threads totaling 200 pgs, a simple collection of those who thought X would go away, it is indeed just that. Nobody says our post facto measures are the best, worst, a bandaid, a fix for 10000 tanks, its just showing you how they present after being darn sure nutrient controls would have saved them....they all 100% initially chose to leave X in the tank, just like what you asked above. see this list for what it is, a collection of hesitations turned around by being deliberate. I could have used a blowtorch and had the same clean tanks, but they'd be retreating more. our chem cheat is killing plant cells which helps tremendously.

if you leave anything in your tank you didn't pay money for that's classed as an invader, you have a real chance of needing that thread one day. easy choice imo. get grazers to do your work, or do the work.

I promise you most tankers would leave it in, and a large portion of them w be fine it w go away with the stasis changes that come to each tank over time. the only reason to present the other option is if someone wants to seal the deal on having no bad growths at all. might take work to attain.

 

[Diesel]