Not sure if this is still cycling

[Treenk]

I have had my tank running for almost 2 months now. I have had fish for about a month same with a little duncan. My ammonia is 0, nitrite 0, nitrate around 10 most the time, and ph 8ish. I started getting this green algae maybe 3 weeks ago and it just keeps getting worse I'm not sure if that's normal or if there is something I need to adjust. I've been told different algae will come and go... but for how long and at what point is it out of control. Anyway this is algae on display rocks, and this is algae growing in sump.

 

[brandon429]

It’s done. Here’s why, from the microbiology of cycling thread

- fish that live past ten hours. Any uncycled system will kill two clowns and feed for them overnite.
-a stated time frame of thirty + days submersion
-confirmation of that time frame even if unstated; the algae growth on the rocks takes that long to appear and nitrifiers have always set before that time per all google cycling charts
-we aren’t factoring a single reading from a titration test kit in the above calls.

The way all the timing fits together as evidenced by pigmentation on the rock and active fish confirms the cycle, not ever a rough estimate from a nine dollar ammonia tester. Cycle= done. Algae control is independent from cycling, it’s advised to keep rocks clean as they take on coralline and corals hopefully. Others would have you let it fill up with new algae, opinions vary.

All of our old cycling materials for the hobby directly link together the emergence of tank wrecking algae as part of preferred cycling which is really just about bacteria...the result of this is hundreds of invaded tanks with algae problems, we were never given the simple option of lifting out rocks and cleaning them externally and setting them back in clean, without messing with the water. How you manage algae, directly or indirectly, really matters long term in my opinion. Cycling and new tank algae are not related, these algae can wreck old tanks as well. Consult the nuisance algae forum and do opposite of the care methods that comprise the bulk of posts ~ however entrants are setting up and running tanks that get them into a tank help thread-do opposite of that from the start. Handy reefing technique

 

[Mikedawg]

+ 1; looks like your tank is cycled. I would check phosphate and if high might help explain algae.

 

[Treenk]

Hmm well thank you. At this point should I have a full clean up crew than. After the ones dying off I'm probably at 5 crabs 8 snails. 29g and 13g sump. I will have to research how to properly clean rocks I didnt even know that was a thing just sand.

 

[Treenk]

+ 1; looks like your tank is cycled. I would check phosphate and if high might help explain algae.

Yeah I think it's time to get something better than the api master test.. which is master of nothing lol

 

[lapin]

Pull out what algae you can by hand and you can also scrub the rock with a nylon brush. I would not worry about what little algae you have now. Better to have it in the sump using up nutrients than in your tank. People grow macro algae in the sump to reduce nutrients. Trim it on a regular basis.

 

[BeejReef]

Your tank looks great.

The rocks in the DT changing color is a good thing. Green is usually first. I don't even know what it's called, but it's not algae in the classic sense, like hair algae. Soon all of your rocks will be that color, and that is progress. As far as the sump, that's personal preference. some like their sump pristine, others let it do it's ugly thing. If you have enough light down there to grow hair algae, you might scrape it out and throw in some chaeto. It's less disgusting to harvest.