Reefer 250 deluxe cycling

[joe8jose]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and have just started cycling my reefer 250 deluxe, my ammonia and nitrite are down to zero but nitrate is still high but dropping, into my third week of cycling. The issue is that i have loads of green hair algae all over my rocks and also on my glass, my LFS has advised me against cleaning anything now and has said to just have patience, he has even advised me to add 2 ml of Vodka for the next 10 days . Can hardly see through the glass now. He has said no water change or cleaning now and that it should die off soon. What would your comments on this be. He had even advised me to run the lights during the cycling so that whatever algae had to come will come and go and will not have issues on a later stage.
He has been a great help to me earlier when i had the RSM 130d.

Look forward to your suggestions and thoughts.

Rgds,
Joe

 

[madreefer2013]

Hey man

Something is seriously wrong, You should run the LIGHTS OFF. Lights will only give nutrients to algae. The purpose of cycling is to build bacteria to combat any ammonia. Do you have an ammonia source? You can buy cycling liquids like Dr Tims to speed up the process. What lights are you using? Your LFS is not giving you great advice, You may need a UV sterilizer to clean up the algae. Also are you using RO/DI water?

 

[Denbf58]

if you had your ammonia spike and then nitrite and both are zero and what are your
nitrates? clean then glass manually remove algae do water change say 50% add clean up crew. you might also want to cut back on your lighting until you get it under control.

 

[joe8jose]

Yes nitrates are also slowly dropping , under 2,0 mg/l now, cleaning the glass and adding some snails today after a 25% water change, also cutting down the intensity of the lights, the lights are Hydra 26HDs

 

[ldballoon4]

Don't cycle your tank with any lights. You have too many nutrients dying off fertilizing the algae. NO light= NO GHA.
If you are not already, run a fitted skimmer for your tank too. After the cycle, start GFO or carbon dosing before turning the Hydras on. Research your choices before committing.:wavehand:

 

[joe8jose]

i am into my third week of cycling, started with a shrimp in the tank for ammonia and have been running the cycling process with my skimmer, lights and wave maker on . first had the brown algae all over the glass and now the green one, the nitrates are dropping and i hope by this weekend it should be really down to do a water change and add some CUC.