hair algae during cycle
 

Hey guys,

My cycle is about a week in now, and I have noticed that one of my rocks is growing hair algae like mad. I think it may have came with some hair algae on it, but it is getting really long now. Is there anything I can do to it during the cycle, or will it die off by itself? Right now i just have a powerhead pointed directly at it, hoping that will discourage growth. I run my halides on for about 6 hours a day, should I just leave the lights off during the cycle? My reasoning for leaving them on during is to avoid and diatom or algae outbreak after the cycle is complete.

Thanks

Thanks but that doesnt answer my specific questions which pertain to hair algae during a cycle. There is no way there are excess nutrients in a tank that was just filled with brand new 0 TDS salt water.

If you put in live rock then you have excess nutrients, even when rock is out of the water for a few hours things die on it, dieing things release nutrients into the water column. Water changes and some form of clean up crew is necessary to get rid of the hair algae before it spreads all over the tank...or you could turn the lights out for a few months and do water changes before turning lights back on

Is it better to cycle with or without lights on? I cannot add a clean up crew or change the water until the cycle is complete, so those 2 suggestions do not work for me.

I have always believed in cycling my tanks with the lights off, and in a dark room. If light gets into the room then I cover the tank and I do this for atleast a month. After that I slowly start turning on the lights a little more every day. By following the above routine I have had great success in controlling algae issues.

^^ EDIT: Trigger beat me to punch...

Running your lights will give the hair algae something to feed off of, as it is photosynthesis, that's why when you cook live rock with algae and other nuisance problems it is recommended to have a completely lights out environment... Your tank will cycle just fine without lights. Once your cycle is complete, continue to do a week or two of water changes without lights, and then you can start increasing your photo period (ie: start @ 4hours, then 6, 8)

Blasting a tank with high levels of light all of sudden can cause a big algae bloom (as I found out when I added about 200% increase on my FW tank with some T5HO's on the same photo period as the stock 15W bulbs) hahaha.. the tank was GREEN... glass, substrate, decor...

Thanks guys, I have now shut off my lights and timers and covered the tank with a blanket to block all light from entering. Do you think the hair algae will be gone by the time the cycle is done by doing this?

It's hard to say, it depends on how long you cycle the tank from today and how much algae there is currently in the tank.. By shutting off the lights and covering the tank, as well as continuing to do the weekly water changes you should be alright. Basicly your tank cycling will now be complete when you no longer see any algae in the tank. Now it is down to the boring patience thing, but it will be well worth it. ( you can try removing as much algae as you can when you do your water changes, as well use RO water to speed the process if you are not already using it)

Hmm, I was told not to do any water changes until the cycle is complete?

Water changes are important, as stuff leaches from the decaying things in the rock, it needs to be removed. You'll still get the necessary bacteria but you remove phosphates that would jump start the algae when the lights come back on

Where do you find your ammonia/trite/trate spikes when you're doing weekly changes in the cycle, you are always going to be removing them and have fluctuating test reading.

If worried about phosphates leaching, there is always the option to run a Phosban reactor during the cycle.

When you mention cycle, are you referring to curing of the rock?? If so, I didnt do any water changes for the 2 months I cured my rock...It would depend on the size of the tank as well...I read somewhere that "the solution to pollution is dilution"...My pounds of live rock to gallons of water was about 0.85:1...

Just make sure you have a kick butt skimmer to get rid of the garbage...

I did water changes twice a day for 2 weeks when I started my rock...but then I was more interested in keeping the critters that make the the rock "live rock" alive then getting ammonia readings.

When you buy "live rock" all the bacteria necessary to complete the nitrate cycle are already in place. Our job is to wait for all the dead stuff inside the rock to finish decaying and polluting the water, then we need to remove the pollution before algae takes over.


It worked for me anyways, I've cured 4 batches of live rock and the nitrates have always reached 0 in about 3 weeks


*edit* Here's an interesting read http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic23945-9-1.aspx

After the first batch of rock that I cured I never bothered testing for ammonia or nitites, I just assumed they were there and my goal was to lower them as quickly as possible. At the 2 week mark I started testing for nitrates


Oh and I had the lights on the tank...the better to see the worms,pods and snails crawling around

just take your time and wait. If the hair alage is getting bad and the levels arent of wack too back look at getting a turbo snail or 2 it will MOW through all of it in a couple or so. The hair algae could be from Dye off orrrr... your water. If you using tap water your going to have algae from my personal experince, This is due to phospates.

Normally I do my first water change 10 to 14 days after I start cycling. Then I do another one 2 weeks later. The reason behind it being that I always use LR and try to get rid of as much die off as possible in order to keep nutrient levels as low as possible. Also taking into consideration that you mentioned that you've already got algae blooms emerging, the water change after cleaning off as much algae as possible will help.

Currently, I am a week into my cycle. I have now covered the tank with blankets and shut the lights off, so that it is a lightless cycle. I am also running my skimmer with full filtration.

I'll wait another week and do a 20% water change, as well as trim and siphon off as much of the hair algae as I can. My water is 0 TDS so the die off from the LR would be the only reason that nutrients are in the tank.