diatom bloom ????????

[garys reef]

hello everyone this is my first post i just found this site i have a 75 gallon corner overflow with a 20 long sump and a bermuda skimmer the tank is about 3 weeks old first week water and live sand next week 65 pounds of fully cured live rock and 3 damsels my buddy didnt want tank is doing great test water daily never had an amonia spike right now its amonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 20 salinity .024 and im having this nasty brown algae on the sand and powerheads is this a diatom bloom and how do i get rid of it i have been using tap water that has a whole house filter on it my ro di unit is on backorder so i switched to distilled water from the store untill i get the unit

 

[motortrendz]

Welcome to mr...

 

[garys reef]

thanks its nice to be here

 

[garys reef]

did you lose power where u are

 

[SevTT]

hello everyone this is my first post i just found this site i have a 75 gallon corner overflow with a 20 long sump and a bermuda skimmer the tank is about 3 weeks old first week water and live sand next week 65 pounds of fully cured live rock and 3 damsels my buddy didnt want tank is doing great test water daily never had an amonia spike right now its amonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 20 salinity .024 and im having this nasty brown algae on the sand and powerheads is this a diatom bloom and how do i get rid of it i have been using tap water that has a whole house filter on it my ro di unit is on backorder so i switched to distilled water from the store untill i get the unit

Add snails and hermits.

 

[The_Codfather]

3 weeks old? http://www.thereeftank.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-cycle-my-tank/

 

[jaa1456]

Sounds like the tank is cycling, or it could be Cyano. Sure your test kits are still good and what brand test kits?

 

[The_Codfather]

Also tap water and salt mix both have silicates in them and the diatom feed off that.. so at this point you are just feeding them

 

[Alex]

your tank seems to be on the cycling period give it a week and then add some snails and hermits. this is part of the cycle and will slowly disappear.

 

[crxin]

Couple things....

If you never had an amonia then you are still cycling and shouldnt have any live stock in it. By using tap water (some tap is better then others) you will have diatom algae since like "the_codfather" said it contains silicates. Try this website for ro unit www.purewaterclub.com. It will take a while with that size tank (just doing water changes) to replace all the water with good quality ro/di water. And yes snails will work, or you could shorten your light cycle. That worked for me back in the day.

 

[motortrendz]

no i didnt loose power where i am but i got lucky alot of people around me did... im in central/south jersey toms river (u know the jersey shore)lol but im a firefighter an wound up being on the truck most of the day going from down lines to down trees services ripped from houses.. but when i got home i realized the hood from my racecar was gone.. looked all over found it in my neighbors yard in his pool...lol and i guess sully was piolting it bc there was no dammage..ha

on a side note.. i didnt have anything for you on this, thats y i just welcomed you, but i knew with in a few moments youd have the right answer many times over!

theres no where better to be if u have a question!

 

[greenycrew]

Lighting

How much lighting and how often do you have it on for? With damsels you could reduce your photoperiod significantly or actually just keep your lights off. Also try to top off with distilled water in the meantime while you wait for your RO unit.

 

[InfernoST]

If his rock was truly cured it is possible for him to have just a mini cycle or no cycle at all.

 

[crxin]

in transporting the rock from one tank to another there has to be some die off, i can maybe see a mini cycle but i wouldnt believe none at all.

 

[Wes]

It is possible to never have a cycle if rock was fully cured


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[jaa1456]

Yes it is possible to not have a cycle, but you need more than just the live rock that has been cured. You also need a handful of sand from an established tank. Not the live sand you buy in a bag. That contains a lot of die off in it. If you were to put a handful from an established tank it would spread over the entire sand bed within hours. Since the bacteria will spread very very quickly you would need something to feed or it will die off and cause a cycle. I usually go with snails and hermits to do this. I have never waited for a cycling period since my first tank 16 years ago.

 

[Wes]

I've used dry sand without seeding and fully cured rock...no cycle


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[InfernoST]

I didn't have that luck and did the fishless thing but do have friends that never experienced a cycle because of fully cured rock.

 

[SevTT]

Couple things....

If you never had an amonia then you are still cycling and shouldnt have any live stock in it.

THis isn't necessarily true. He said he got the LR from a friend and that it was part of an active tank; in this case, it's unlikely that you're going to get a noticeable ammonia spike, if you took care in transporting the rock and didn't also xfer the sand-bed, or didn't disturb the sand-bed if he got it with the tank.