Confused please help!!

[mfranklin]

Ok heres the deal.
I just decided to set up my tank again and am cycling it now.
55gal. with 15 gal sumpI have put in my base rock and a bag of live sand and have been letting things go checking things over keeping salinity rite etc. then in one or two days red algae is covering rocks. I was told to just let it go and the algae would "cycle through"

But I just read a thread saying to do waterchanges 3 times a week and brush off the rocks if they get any algae growth.

so what should I do next

BTW I mixed the water and with treated tap water. and I have a skmmer but I have been having trouble setting it up just rite.

Thanks for reading

 

[stelow]

Have you ever tried turning the light off.

 

[LiveRoker]

Yeah Cyano attack is a pain.

I think that your problem is likely due to the use of tap water. I bet there is a high concentration of phophates in your water supply.

What you need to do is get a reverse osmosis unit, you can get a 6 stage unit that is really nice for about 100 bucks on EBAY. Just do a search for "reverse osmosis". There are a ton of units to choose from, basically they all do the exact same thing. Make sure that you change the filters every year, the main membrane is pretty expensive, I would change it as least every 2 years based on how much water you make.

You can try to brush the algae off and syphon as much as you can, but with poor water quality it will be a losing battle. Cut the light exposure time down as well, minimal feedings are key.

good luck.

 

[bertoni]

RO-DI water might help, but such cyanobacteria blooms are common in new tanks. Doing the cleanup might help get rid of it a bit faster, or you could just wait a while and see what happens. Many phosphate test kits will work with fresh water, so you could consider testing your tapwater that way.

 

[mfranklin]

ok well thats fine I can just run to the lfs and buy that stuff until I get a filter.

As far as leaving the lights off all I have is LR and LS in the tank so how long do I really need to keep it running?

should I do frequent water changes during my cycling period before I add fish?

 

[bertoni]

I would do water changes as long as the ammonia was above 0.5ppm, as an arbitrary guess. Don't drive yourself crazy, though. They aren't needed to get the tank going, but I think they might help speed the process and save animals. I would definitely do a few large (25%) changes before adding any new animals.

The lighting is up to you. I don't know how much it matters either way. I would keep the tank lit at least partially to help save photosynthetic organisms, but that might help a pest algae get started. Pick your poison.