Brown Algae/diatoms/silicates trouble??

[RYANLAWRENCE]

Ok got back from a week vacation and walked into my room to check on the tank and see how cycling went. Wow! the tanks sand is covered in a brown algae thing. the live rocks that were covered in pink coraline algae are now covered in this brown stuff. the tank glass has little filaments of brown algae all over it too. I saved a little bit of it to take a picture of it. I believe this is silicates?? or diatoms or something like that? How do i fix this??? Also my cheap Petco powerhead (wont be buying one of those again) overheated and made my tank 85 degrees. My tank is cycling so nothing was harmed but how do i fix this mess? Thanks. Ill put some pics of the stuff up.

 

[Jimbo7]

Just let it run it's course. Its a normal phase of a new tank. Once it has completed cycling, some large water changes, strong flow, and your CUC will clean it right up. It's a good sign really.

 

[RYANLAWRENCE]

here is one of the pics

 

[RYANLAWRENCE]

and three more

 

[RYANLAWRENCE]

thanks jimbo but the thing is that it should have been finished cycling already. Before i left ammonia was zero, nitrites were very very close to zero, and nitrates were zero. The guy at the fish store said i could add fish this weekend probably. So now are fish out of the question untill this stuff goes away?

 

[RYANLAWRENCE]

I meant nitrates were acceptable not zero sorry for all the posts

 

[Jimbo7]

Check your levels, do a pretty decent sized feeding, and then check your levels again over the next couple hours. As long as everything is getting converted fine, you should do a large water change prolly around 20-30% i think is the recommended after cycle and you will be ready for a CUC and eventually fish. You can use the hose when you do the PWC to vacuum off the diatoms you can. The CUC should take care of the rest.

 

[RYANLAWRENCE]

What do you mean when you say do a feeding?

 

[thincat]

A light feeding of the tank will tell you if you have enough good bacteria to convert the Waste (food) into harmless nitrates.

 

[thincat]

Your tank don't look half bad. Take a Turkey baster and blow the diatoms off your live rock and do a 30% water change and you should be good to go. By that I mean to add your CUC and then a week later add one fish, If you have a "large tank, 125 or larger" you can add more fish, like two or three.
PS: don't forget to test your water as that is the only way to truely know if your tank is ready. Remember that your LFS wants to sell you as much fish as they can, not what is good for your tank...Go slow and you should be okay.

 

[RYANLAWRENCE]

Ok thanks guys ill drop a couple of the food pellets i have in there. i also tested my water before i changed it and ammonia was still 0, nitrite was a little high at .3. I just changed 30% of the water. Also what is CUC? haha im still not up to date on the lingo

 

[Jimbo7]

Clean Up Crew, your snails, crabs and stuff
Your own lingo guide
Aquarium Advice - Aquarium Forum Community - FAQ: Acronyms and Abbreviations

 

[RYANLAWRENCE]

oh ok cool how many snails and what species would you recccomend for 40 gallons? i already have 3 crabs that hitchhiked on my live rock.

 

[Jimbo7]

General rule is one crab/snail/something per gallon. I recommend you start a little lower, maybe half or 3/4 of that and see how they do. Its better that they take their time eating it over a week or so, rather then getting a ton, they eat it all, then die off because there is no more food. Big ol' waste of money.

 

[RYANLAWRENCE]

also got another question that might be contributing to the algae/diatoms...should my light even be on while the tank is cycling? I have been having it on about 10 hrs a day or so

 

[Jimbo7]

yea, thats probably fueling it as well. I would go for around 6 hours a day until you get fish/coral in there, then go 8. When the tank is a little more established, you can bump it back up to 10.

 

[RYANLAWRENCE]

but the diatoms should not hurt or adversely affect any fish right/

 

[Jimbo7]

nope, should be fine.

 

[johnmaloney]

yeah, you will just have to wait the diatoms out until the available silicates are used up