life cycle of algea

[ohio reefer]

i was just wondering what the cycle of the good algea is(color cycle)? does that make sense?

i was told at a lfs that when cycling your tank(without live rock) that it is normal for your aquarium to go through a " algea cycle" that will start off one color and end up anouther. the guy said this is not only normal but it is beneficial. he didn't tell me the color range (from start to finish)that it goes through (because he couldn't remember), and thats what i really want to know! i looked everywhere on the net i couldn't find a thing!


please help

mark

 

[Biggen]

He may of been referring to the actual different algae progression through the cycling stage. Typically Diatoms are the first to appear which are brown to reddish in nature. Then comes a type of green string/hair algae that crops up on the rocks. Green spot algae is next which begins to make its way on to the glass. Finally coralline algae begins to make an appearance and its color can vary from green to purple to red to orange.