Live Rock Question

[New2Salt]

I've read about Diatoms, but are they supposed to be like long and mossy, it is not only all over the live sand, but all over my live fuji rock, it doesn't seem to be stopping the other things from growing tho, but will it eventually choke the other things? I'm in the 3rd week of cycling fishless with live rock, live sand and RO water, as of the 7th the PH is at 8.2, the Ammonia is 0.5 and Nitrate is 5.0 and Nitrite is 0

the lighting is: T10 25watt (75watt equivalent) fluorescent & T12 25watt Actinic blue fluorescent.

 

[fishfreek]

the lighting is: T10 25watt (75watt equivalent) fluorescent & T12 25watt Actinic blue fluorescent.

I am confused by what you mean when you say (75Watt equivalent).

What color is this growth on the live rock and live sand?

Please describe it in some more detail if you can.

 

[New2Salt]

Here's a pic

Here's a pic of what it looks like, as far as the lighting, I don't know that's what my husband told me to put.

Here's the look of what it looks like, could it be we have the lights going for too long of a period? We have them coming on at 6:30 am first with the blue then an hour later with the fluorescent, then turn off the fluorescent at 7:30 pm, then the blue goes out at 8:30 pm.


We have all these white little bugs all over the glass and floating around in the water which I guess are copepods. There seem to be a lot of them on the glass at night and not as many as the day progresses, they seem to have eaten some of the diatom stuff that was on the glass.

Hope I can upload this pic and it comes out ok.

 

[Anemoneman]

Looks more like hair algae but the actual species is irrelevant. It's micro algae. Put some snails in when the ammonia & nitrites are zero. Get maybe 8 or 10 of them. They will clean it up pronto.
It looks like you are off to a good start. You don't say what size tank but 50W sounds like too little light for a reef tank. You may want to consider an upgrade to PC (power compact) or just add more of them if that's what you are already using.

Mark

 

[New2Salt]

Thanks

Thanks for the answer on the hairy algae, with the cycle still going on and the algae becoming more and more, it seems a lot more today am I going to have problems with the live plants growing from the live rock being choked out by the hair algae?

Oh, it's a 29 gallon sorry. I don't want to put any critters in early and don't want to do chemicals, would like to do everything natural as possible. I noticed the only areas the algae is really attacking the rock is where there is more light, should I not have the lights on as long as we doing?

Thanks again!