I am 30 days into my cycle and I have diatoms beginning to bloom on rocks and sand. My question is do I still add ammonia everyday? Will be doing a water change to bring the nitrates down. Also can I add a small clean up crew?
Diatoms
- Thread starter Navi
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Dr. Reef
www.drreefsquarantinedfish.com
no dont dose ammonia now. if you have nitrates showing then cycle is complete and need water change and go on with the hobby.
U
User1
Guest
Not sure if you actually meant this but you shouldn't be dosing or adding ammonia daily. You add it to start the cycle, then test to verify it is at 2 ppm. Once that is done you let it ride and test a couple days after to get its reading. From there you wait till it goes to 0, then test nitrites. Once ammonia is 0 you add again to 2 ppm and test 24 hours later to verify it is processed completely in 24 hours. If not you are still in the cycle.
Diatoms are normal and will start once the cycle is more or less completed and you have your lights on. My tank started the cycle in February, finished in March, and I didn't turn on lighting until April. That is when I started to see diatoms anyway.
Edit: this is assuming you are going fishless cycle. There are other ways like dead shrimp to start the ammonia, etc.
