Stingray122
New member
Hi, little background information. Started cycling 2 weeks ago. Cycling the tank using BRS's ULM Cycle technique. Using Dr. Tim's One and Only and feeding pellets daily. Noticed about 4 days ago that some strange white growth was growing on the rocks. The tank has been covered using tagboard on the glass to prevent light from my room entering the tank in hopes to prevent the initial algae growth everyone gets. Tank is about 57-60 gallons, hard to estimate. Growing Chaeto from the beginning using a 165 Watt UFO (actually draws about 90W). Also added pods to the tank in the beginning as well. I have been no running any mechanical or chemical filtration in the tank. I may start skimming tonight as I have seen a large amount of foam has been collecting in my sump as of late. My chaeto also seems to not be doing so hot. It tends to stick at the surface with it partially out of the water and has been bleaching slightly, I have since tucked it down underneath some dry rock rubble. I did experience some massive chaeto growth about a week ago when I lowered the light slightly as I was not seeing any growth, maybe it reached a limiting factor.
Tests performed with Red Sea kits
First Week's Test results
Ammonia : 0-0.2
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate : 2
Second Week's Test results
Ammonia : 0.2-0.4
Nitrite : Untested (Could test if you guys request it)
Nitrate : 2-4
Tank parameters have been at 79 degrees F and 1.025 SG pretty stable besides one incident where my ATO dumped about 3 gallons of RODI water into the tank.
My question is what is this strange white growth im getting? Does not have any green tint like a green hair algae would have. It is very white and stringy. Its growth was slowed for a few days, I noticed much less, and now today it is back and more than ever. I was thinking maybe some sort of bacteria growth? Could it be bacterial die-off? Is this pretty normal? Also is it normal to see ammonia spike again in the second week? I realize Im probably overthinking everything, which I tend to do in general. Thanks guys, just want to make sure all is normal as im hoping to be able to put my clownfish into this tank when they are done with their QT process in about 2 weeks. Let me know if this seems to be a normal process.
Imgur link with album of pictures
https://imgur.com/a/M6FKM
Tests performed with Red Sea kits
First Week's Test results
Ammonia : 0-0.2
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate : 2
Second Week's Test results
Ammonia : 0.2-0.4
Nitrite : Untested (Could test if you guys request it)
Nitrate : 2-4
Tank parameters have been at 79 degrees F and 1.025 SG pretty stable besides one incident where my ATO dumped about 3 gallons of RODI water into the tank.
My question is what is this strange white growth im getting? Does not have any green tint like a green hair algae would have. It is very white and stringy. Its growth was slowed for a few days, I noticed much less, and now today it is back and more than ever. I was thinking maybe some sort of bacteria growth? Could it be bacterial die-off? Is this pretty normal? Also is it normal to see ammonia spike again in the second week? I realize Im probably overthinking everything, which I tend to do in general. Thanks guys, just want to make sure all is normal as im hoping to be able to put my clownfish into this tank when they are done with their QT process in about 2 weeks. Let me know if this seems to be a normal process.
Imgur link with album of pictures
https://imgur.com/a/M6FKM
