New tank cycle.

harlo33369 · Sep 17, 2018

I am new to this and this is my first try. I have a Fluval evo 13.5 and I am 11 days on my cycle. Is this normal? Seems like all the brown diatoms pictures I have seen never looked like this.

saltyfilmfolks · Sep 17, 2018

What did you use to cycle it ?

I’ve only seen a couple things do that.

harlo33369 · Sep 17, 2018

I started with caribsea fiji pink live sand and then added the dry rock. I later added Dr. Tim's ammonia and some seed bacteria by aquavitro. It also seems like water is evaporating at a high rate.

saltyfilmfolks · Sep 17, 2018

Ok. I’ve not used the aquavitro.
I did use something that left big nasty brown”puddles” on my sand some time ago. It did eventually go away.
The evap I think may be Coincidental
Let’s se if we can get some experiences.
#reefsquad

hdsoftail1065 · Sep 17, 2018

Watching this post to learn.

ndrwater · Sep 17, 2018

Does look unusually patchy, but doubt if it's something to be truly concerned with. My educated guess it has something to do with something in the live sand.
I initially read just Fiji Pink, but had to re-read to confirm my initial thought.
Where are the Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrale levels at this point?
I would continue to guess that the patchiness will fill in a bit and look more "normal" within a short period of time.

harlo33369 · Sep 17, 2018

2, 5 and 40 a couple days ago. Have not checked today.

ndrwater · Sep 17, 2018

Things are definitely still cooking. I wouldn't stress all that much. If it really bugs you, feel free to stir up the sand a bit. Whatever is causing the patchiness will be distributed a bit more.

harlo33369 · Sep 17, 2018

Awesome. Thanks for the advice.

Brew12 · Sep 17, 2018

saltyfilmfolks said:
The evap I think may be Coincidental

Didn't @Dr. Reef see very high evaporation in his test tank that had the Fritz bacteria product? It also happened to be the most effective out of the 4 tanks in that trial.

saltyfilmfolks · Sep 17, 2018

Brew12 said:
Didn't @Dr. Reef see very high evaporation in his test tank that had the Fritz bacteria product? It also happened to be the most effective out of the 4 tanks in that trial.

No clue. Honestly that thread is so long and dry, and I kinda know how to cycle a tank and have no questions about the products or process.
No offense.