cycling and diatoms

[remora420]

i was just wondering if diatoms were a sign that your tank has cycled. im doing a fish free cycle. its been 1 week since i started the tank up and i have had diatoms blooming all day today.... any thoughts???

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

The only sure fire way of knowing if you've cycled is if you've seen either an ammonia and nitrite spike and they're now both zero. OR... if you didn't see any ammonia/nitrites and you started out with 0ppm nitrates in your water and now you've got measurable nitrates, that would imply you've cycled also.

Diatoms *normally* will show up after the cycle is over, or at the end, but checking the water parameters is the only real safe way to know for sure.

One week is pretty quick, unless you started out with sand and/or rock seeded with bacteria from an established tank to start with, or really "fresh" cured live rock.

 

[remora420]

my nitrite is going down but its still at .25 not zero amonea is at 0 ,ph 8.3,
and my nitrate is at 10ppm. ill check it in the mourning to see if my nitrite gets to zero. thanks for the help!!.....

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Good deal! Sounds like you're on the downhill side of the cycle! You must've used seeded rock or sand, eh?

 

[remora420]

yeah sand