White stuff and cloudy water during cycle

[Pete Paschall]

Hey all! I have recently set up a frag tank and started the cycle with ammonium chloride and Dr. Tim's One and Only. The tank is an All In One 16" X 20" X 8" (11 gallons) that I modded to add a sump made from a 10 gallon tank, so I figure there is a total water volume of 15-17 gallons. It has a Sicce Silent 1.0 return (251 gph) and 2 Koralia Nano (240 gph) powerheads. The only things in the tank are 3 pieces of dry shelf rock, marine pure spheres and black eggcrate superglued to gray PVC fittings for a stand. The sump also has marine pure spheres and one more piece of dry rock, with one small piece of live rock I pulled from the sump of my main tank to help seed. There is no livestock in the tank, and I haven't been running lights yet.

I was worried about the cycle stalling due to lack of nitrites, so I added Biospira last Monday (Sep 16). Nitrites spiked and have come back down, so I added the ammonium chloride back up to approximately 2ppm again, and ammonia and nitrites were down to 0 the next day. The problem is that this white stringy stuff has appeared on the rocks and eggcrate and the water is cloudy. So I did a 100% water change yesterday, and it's back today. Is this just a normal bacterial bloom that will subside on its own, or something else?

 

[Fishnut]

IMO it is a bacterial bloom. With no fish in the tank, I would let it ride out with no water changes.

 

[Pete Paschall]

Thanks!