Full Blown Diatom Bloom!

rbtwo4

New member
Ok any suggestions on what to do??? just let it sit or what? week and a half into the cycle and this was expected soooooo now what?
 
i'd say let it sit... it should resolve on its own. as soon as your nitrites read 0, do a water change.

i had a TERRIBLE combination bloom of diatoms and either cyano or dinoflagelattes about a week or two into my cycle and i just let it sit until the cycle was done, then immediately did a fairly large water change (40%) and added a cleanup crew and it cleared up within a couple days and hasnt returned.
 
Nitrate 40
nitrite 0.5
ph 8.4
alk 300
ammonia 0

ph seems a little high tho nitrite actually went down from the last time i tested the h2o alk actually went up too ammonia has stayed the same was thru the roof the 1st week but went down to 0
 
Alk 240 ? you sure. on what scale? Do you mean calcium? Looking good for the cycle. Let the nitite go to zero and then do a 10% water change to get the nitrates down.
 
lol yeah the Alk reads 300 dunno what you mean by "scale" but thats what my test kit reads. i just tested everything and those are the readings i got.
 
Someone help me out here my test for alk reads in meg and I am used to 3.5-4.5 readings as the norm for seawater. Not sure what 240 is in relation to.
 
hahahahaha i dunno thats what my kit is reading and it says saltwater kit! it says ALKALINITY/BUFFERING CAPACITY have no idea what that means
 
rbtwo your tank is very new and what you are experiencing is all part of the cycle, I would not worry too much about your params until your nitrites settle, when these do you will notice a drop in the amount of diatoms... one day you will clean the glass and they wont come back :)

Sean
 
rbtwo4, what test are you using for the alk? I have only seen it measured in meq/L and dKH. Both would be no where near in the hundreds
 
seany i know its knew just wanted to make sure there was nothing i needed to do but just sit there and watch this nasty brown stuff take over the tank. once the nitrites go down then what? im assuming water change right? as for my kit jon im using a mardel 5 in 1 test strip i have the instant ocean powder test kit but i dont want to use that until my tank is fully cycled makes no sense in wasting it now so i bought the test strips for now
 
When the nitarates drop so will the food source, your soon to be added clean up crew will deal with the rest, Don't worry, ugly things will soon turn great, my tank is covered with algea's at the moment due to the catastrophe that has just happened, I do not need to do anything to remove the algae as sometimes leaving alone is best, You can do a water change when your nitrates are down this will remove some of the added "polution" from a cycle, I personally do not as it is all a natural process. When they finally do drop keep your system in balance and you will not have any further problems, the only thing I would say is to clean the glass so you can see it all happening before your very eyes :)
 
thanks seany! now i jsut noticed after cleaning the glass like u said little green leaf looking thingys theyre really small kind of look like a mini fern they are spread out all over the glass any idea what it is?
 
fern looking things that I have had are usually caulerpa algae but this has been contained to the LR and sand near LR. If this is caulerpa do not worry too much at the moment as your tank is young, however, keep watch and do not let it take hold as this will spread fast, it does need food and starves quite easily. If you do have caulerpa and it is only on a few rocks I would remove them and scrub them clean it looks great but is a real pain to remove once it has taken hold. a cycling tank is also a great catalyst for nuisance algae's but also a great killer of them too, this is where time plays its part
 
If they are on the glass they are even less of a worry, I have them on sections of my tank where I cannot clean, mine are usually white though!, a simple back and forward action with a magnet type aid :) usually deals with, however, I am sure that someone with a hand at names will be able to tell you the names i'm terrible for remembering them. What you see brown will soon turn green when most is green your tank is past cycling and ready for the next stage
 
cool u been a great help seany just like everyone else on this site. ive basically narrowed it down to one of 2 things its either Caulerpa or (i hope not this) bryopsis
 
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