New tank - diatom or hair algae or ???

[hllb]

Tank is brand new (day 9) and as of yesterday nitrates were around 10 (did a WC on Saturday), ammonia is .15, nitrites 0, awaiting phosphate test kit to arrive from amazon. I know algae is expected at this stage. I have hair algae on one of my rocks and thought I had a diatom on the substrate. But now I’m wondering if it’s more hair algae since it’s kind of growing off the bed (if you zoom in you can see it). It’s starting to coat the glass too. Thoughts?

 

[Qasimja]

hm the second pick kinda looks like cyano could be the lighting maybe

 

[JustinSmi86]

I would hair... I have a bit of diatom in my new setup and it looks a bit different. I don’t have any hair elsewhere in the tank.

 

[hllb]

I really need a phosphate test. My nitrates are only at 10 today so I’m thinking I have higher phosphates.

 

[hllb]

hm the second pick kinda looks like cyano could be the lighting maybe

That picture came out pretty freaky looking. It didn’t look quite like that to the naked eye. That was under moonlight last night, and the top picture was daylight today.

 

[hllb]

I would hair... I have a bit of diatom in my new setup and it looks a bit different. I don’t have any hair elsewhere in the tank.

Mine looked like that initially. The hairy appearance showed up days later.

 

[JustinSmi86]

Any current clean up crew? If not I’d say you have plenty of food for them.

 

[hllb]

Any current clean up crew? If not I’d say you have plenty of food for them.

All I have is a hitchhiker mini brittle star. I haven’t intentionally added anything yet because I wanted to make sure I really wasn’t going to see a big spike. Only on day 9, but put 30 lbs of cured live rock from in from LFS along with seeding bacteria. I *think* I’m there but not sure. Maybe I’ll email Reef Cleaners and ask their opinion. I don’t want to kill the little guys.

 

[JustinSmi86]

All I have is a hitchhiker mini brittle star. I haven’t intentionally added anything yet because I wanted to make sure I really wasn’t going to see a big spike. Only on day 9, but put 30 lbs of cured live rock from in from LFS along with seeding bacteria. I *think* I’m there but not sure. Maybe I’ll email Reef Cleaners and ask their opinion. I don’t want to kill the little guys.

If it was cured and clean rock then your probably good adding inhabitants... any ammonia spikes so far? I did my tank from start to fully stocked in less than 3 weeks with live rock. I did have one loss but it had nothing todo with the cycling of the tank.

Also I got my CUC from them as well... I went with 75gallon for my 75 and IMO was far to big! I would go with half the size of your tank.

 

[hllb]

If it was cured and clean rock then your probably good adding inhabitants... any ammonia spikes so far? I did my tank from start to fully stocked in less than 3 weeks with live rock. I did have one loss but it had nothing todo with the cycling of the tank.

Also I got my CUC from them as well... I went with 75gallon for my 75 and IMO was far to big! I would go with half the size of your tank.

I was questioning their sizes too! For a 32 gallon there is something like 50 snails in their package!

My ammonia went up to .5 and is back down to about .15 now. I’m using an API test which I’ve heard has issues showing 0 ammonia. I’ve never seen any nitrites and my nitrates went from 5 up to around 13 and is stabilizing around 10 right now.

 

[JustinSmi86]

I was questioning their sizes too! For a 32 gallon there is something like 50 snails in their package!

My ammonia went up to .5 and is back down to about .15 now. I’m using an API test which I’ve heard has issues showing 0 ammonia. I’ve never seen any nitrites and my nitrates went from 5 up to around 13 and is stabilizing around 10 right now.

Yea I had 100+snails and quite a few perished for lack of food.

My API never shows zero either... nitrites(corrected) I would wait to drop to zero before adding anything (unless someone wants to jump in and disagree) what are your nitrates doing?

 

[hllb]

Yea I had 100+snails and quite a few perished for lack of food.

My API never shows zero either... nitrates I would wait to drop to zero before adding anything (unless someone wants to jump in and disagree) what are your nitrates doing?

Hmm...nitrates don’t usually go to zero, as far as I know. At least not typically? I would like them closer to 5 than 10 though. I’m going to be gone this coming weekend so waiting until next week sounds like a good idea so I can be more confident of the water and be around to monitor the critters.

 

[JustinSmi86]

Hmm...nitrates don’t usually go to zero, as far as I know. At least not typically? I would like them closer to 5 than 10 though. I’m going to be gone this coming weekend so waiting until next week sounds like a good idea so I can be more confident of the water and be around to monitor the critters.

I meant nitrites... lol. Corrected it in original post.

 

[hllb]

I meant nitrites... lol. Corrected it in original post.

My nitrites have always been zero. No mistaking that sky blue!

 

[JustinSmi86]

My nitrites have always been zero. No mistaking that sky blue!

Ok I misread your post. Thought you said you saw spike in nitrites and nitrates... probably a good idea to wait till you get back but I imagine you will see the algae get worse as well.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Reduce white lighting, do a light gravel siphoning and see what direction this takes

 

[hllb]

Reduce white lighting, do a light gravel siphoning and see what direction this takes

I did reduce it but probably not enough. I’ll reduce it more.

 

[hllb]

Phosphate test arrived today. Tests at 0. I reduced the lights more today. Ammonia is so close to zero now, nitrites still 0, nitrates climbed to around 18 now. They really seem to fluctuate day to day. I’ll do a water change before I go away for the weekend.