Lighting and algae.....

[nanpat]

Hi everyone, i have a question about my 108 gallon aquarium. it has been setup now for a little over two weeks, im doing my cycle with fish [ giant danios ] only because i was not able to find any ammonia in my home town... what i have been noticing is that i have algae growth a little bit everwhere. i dont like the green stuff but i was just wandering if all this is normal... my cycle is not done yet so when it is done will the algae be more under control ? the lighting i have is t5 fluo , 4 of 34" long and they are 39 watts each.... the tank will be a cichlid tank so what is the most time of light that i am able to leave on ? i have read around 10 hours a day... is this fair..... my aquarium is in the basement with very little natural day light and not direct sunlight at all....so with that info any suggestions will be helpful ... thanks Pat....

 

[drillsar2]

It's normal because when you cycle the tank will have excess of ntrients in the water. Yo can cut the light time for now, test your water for Ammonia, No2 and No3, I would suggest using prime with fish cycling.

If you see any ammonia or No2 you will need to do a partial water change, fish cycle takes longer this way but it is necessary.

 

[nanpat]

i am using cycle from hagen wich is similar to prime i believe... i have been checking for ammonia and have tested it at 0.1 and my nitrites seem to be at 0.1 also. no traces of nitrates yet... is it normal that i have small traces of amm. and nitrites at the same time ? i thought that ammonia had to spike before seeing traces of nitrites. with low ammonia should i do a water change or wait a little longer ? will that prolong my cycle ? thanks again....

 

[kangster]

my neon tetras(i was cycling with them) survived an ammonia spike of 1.5 (between 1 and 2 from the liquid test) and an nitrite spike of 2-5
i was doing pwc every 2-3 days to keep the levels low and it took me like 2 months to cycle
my tank was small so it was not a big of a deal to do pwc but i imagine it would be a pain to do a pwc on 108 gallon tank

 

[drillsar2]

Any small amount of Ammonia/Nitrite is unsafe so you will need to do a pwc, check your source water it's possible it has nitrite.