I have DIATOMS!!!!!!! Some questions

[Jermz79]

O.K. Here's my story! Some of you may cringe, some of you may not believe me, but I have cycled to the point of Diatoms on my rock and sand in 2 weeks!

I started out with ~ 40lbs of Un-cured Fiji LR, and about a 4" DSB ... Added my premixed RO/DI water from my LFS and took everyones advice on this board and threw in a cocktail shrimp! After about 5 days the shrimp was completely gone ... So I called a family friend who has a pretty nice Reef tank and asked him what he thought! He comes over and with him brings me a Yellow Tail Damsel, and some of his favorite stuff Nitromax (I know I know) ... anyway he tells me do a little water change and throw this damsel in there and then every other day add some of this Nitromax (to which I didn't believe in myself)! Test your water from there on out everyday and watch your levels drop like flies.

Fast forward 5 days ... come home today and my sand is beaming brown!!!! OMG .... freakin out ... NO wait a minute this is normal! so I did a quick water test and came up with the following

Ph - 8.2
Ammo - 0
Trite - 0
Trates - between 5-10

All looks to good to be true to me! Could this be that my tank has almost cycled in 2 weeks? If not what is the brown stuff I am seeing and what should I do about it?

If they are indeed diatoms do I wait until they are completely gone before doing another water change? How much of a change do I need to do and when should I add some cleaners?


Oh and by the way .... my Damsel, "Tiny", is doing just fine! seems to really enjoy the pods all over the place!

Thanks and sorry this is kind of long

Jermz79

 

[seaham358]

If the LR you got did not hav emuch die off the a quick cycle is possible. Readings look good and you can do a WC of 10-20% when ever you want.
I would do a WC and then check levels after a day or so if there still good a clean up crew would be ok... Just don't get a large clean up crew start out slow.