I went to work today came back and notice that overnight I have had a huge algea outbreak in my tank brown spots over everything, and everything is 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and nitrate is this just part of having a newly cycled tank?

yes, diatom blooms are a normal and expected even after your cycle finishes (or slightl before or after it finishes)

maintain normal maintenance. clean the glass, change the water, all the normal stuff, even flow it off the rocks into the water column so the skimmer can get them out (or even siphon them if you want)

in 3-6 weeks they will go away

IME a diatom bloom occurs just after the nitrogen cycle.
how long has your tank been up for?
How long ago did the nitrogen cycle balance out at 0?

It finished its first cycle about 1 1/2 weeks ago. Do you think my PC's being on 12 hours a day would do it? I just got those last week and they are on a 12 hour cycle the actinics a half hour longer.

It has nothing to do with the lights... it's very normal. If your tank didn't go through the bloom it would be abnormal. It will work itself out without a cleanup crew or anything.

I don't think so. I agree with Rob that this is a "normal" stage for your tank. Fallow Robs advice and you'll be fine.

great thanks guys :) It's funny i have read about all of this stuff but when it finally happened I freaked out lol

This is a good sign! I had those not too long ago my self.

Things I found that helped getting over it:

1. Cut back on regular lighting time and use Actinics mainly.
2. Use turkey baster to break up the algae growth.
3. Alter the flow to make sure everywhere is getting proper flow.


After a week of that, you can start adding time to the regular lighting.

IME, the more you disrupt it, the longer it will take to dissipate since you keep restarting that part of the cycle.

clean your viewing panels, but let the rest work itself out.

oops, sorry about that. I was thinking about red slime algae.

:sick:

lol oh well thanks anyway Timanator. Thanks saxman I will be patient. Is 5 hermit crabs to little or just right for a 29gal?

I usually recommend 1 per 10 gallons. But I actually don't use hermits at all. Can't have one member of the clean up crew eating the others. Put some larger shells in there and feed them directly if you see them out and about alot. It's not natural behaviour for a hermit to be visible. If you see them, it's out of necessity to calm the growl in their belly.

2 days ago when I had my diatom outbreak I notice the hermits looked like they were in thier glory. I was going to get five more but I guess when the algea bloom goes away I will have a bunch of hungry hermits. I do want to get some snails though.

Be careful about mixing hermits and snails, I got so tired of having to get new snails I took all my hermits out and put them in my “display fuge”.

wow I have been reading this everywhere, I am a little concerned, because I really love my hermits but the snails are very good algea eaters

What kind of hermits do you have and what kind of snails?

mexican red-leg hermit and astrea conehead snails

The reds are better than others. Don't let them get hungry and throw bigger shells in there. Now, the astrea, are they able to right themselves if they fall on their backs? This could be a problem if they can't for obvious reason. Snail a-la-cart for the hermit.

The reds are better than others. Don't let them get hungry and throw bigger shells in there. Now, the astrea, are they able to right themselves if they fall on their backs? This could be a problem if they can't for obvious reason. Snail a-la-cart for the hermit.
yes, astreas and fine sand dont mix well...lol

Well I bought five of the astrea snails and only 1 lives. I put 3 in the tank that were stuck together and two in seperatly, the two seperate ones went on thier own and the rest have not moved. I put them in the tank around 2pm and it is now 7:42 and they still havent moved. So in the morning I will remove them. The two peppermint shrimp that I put in yesturday are very curious individuals eating all of my aptasia and when ever I come to the glass they run over to greet me.

Over how long of a time period did you acclimate them?

I put the bag in the tank for 30 minutes and let them adjust to the water, then I opened the bag, and with a turkey baster squrited a little bit of my DT in once every ten minutes for 40 minutes. Did I not do it long enough? I did read where these snails need a good amount of acclimation.

If you get nice healthy snails I usually don't find it an issue. But we have no idea what they've been through in the last week. I typically try to do at least two hours.. Some sail through it, some don't.

Yea this was not a good batch, I want to see what the hermits will do with the dead. Maybe I should try another snail but what?

Some vibex and nerites and ceriths would be great. I LOVE nerites for film algae.

Diatoms are ugly and annoying but there's nothing you can do besides sifoning and cleaning the rocks and sides of the tank.

They go away within three weeks - however when you do a water change they'll come back unless you have a tap water filter which filters out silicates and phosphates (which are what diatoms feed on apparently)

I am actually pretty lucky, It's not as bad as others I have seen. A little on the glass which I have cleaned and they have not come back and a couple spots on the sand. The rocks are a bit spotted but nothing bad at all. I have a water change tomorrow planned.

good news seahorsedreams everyone is alive. I woke up this morning and they were all out and about. Must be they were stunned or acclimating.

You will find that hermits are something that we disagree on. Personally, I just like them because hey are fun to watch! I've never had a problem with them killing my snails although I know other people who have. I have astera, cereith, nassarius and stomatella snails and they do a far better job of eating algae than snails do. :) Unfortunately none of them seem to like nuisance algae.

Diatoms are ugly and annoying but there's nothing you can do besides sifoning and cleaning the rocks and sides of the tank.

They go away within three weeks - however when you do a water change they'll come back unless you have a tap water filter which filters out silicates and phosphates (which are what diatoms feed on apparently)

You will find that most people recommend using RO/DI water for this very reason. Tap water, whether it comes from a municipal system or a well, can have undesirable elements and/or nutrients in it. For instance my friend's family was all having similar GI problems as was their dog! It turns out that their well water naturally has a very low pH which was causing copper to leach from their plumbing.

Well I kinda jump the gun on the diatom outbreak it tuned out not as bad as I thought, just a little after cycle diatoms. Although now I am having a problem with this little on stem fern type stuff that sticks to the rock and sways in the current. All I use is RO since I live near a lake/pond and that is my water, I didnt even want to go there.

It could be hair algae. Does it look like filaments?

oh yea i just realized that is what it is I am being invaded my the green yucky stuff and there is nothing I can do about it. Tell me this is just the part of having a newly cycled tank and is part of the maturing process. My tests show 10 on nitrate and 0 on everything else even phosphoros. I take it to the lfs and they test and say I am 0 across the board. Ph was low yesturday but perfect today, I have to get an alk. test and my salanity is up to 1.026, because I put salt in with my top off water, but I have to because I am losing5 gallons every 5 days and that is becuse I have to cover on my tank. I have the begginers blues. :(

i thought you werent supposed to put salt in top off water? i found the Emerald Crab did a good job with my patch of hair algae...and also...my tank has been up for like almost 6 months now and i have corals and clean up crew and LR, but i didnt really have a diatom outbreak, i did have some diatoms here and there but that was it..should i be worried?

I just realized something on my way home from picking up pizza. When I tested my water yesturday night, the light in my sump/refugium had been off for a day, that maybe why my water tested 8.0. I went away for a buisness trip and I put the light on in the refugium before I left. I came back tonight and checked and noticed that it was up to 8.3, so if it remains at that level then it's the cheato morph possibly going through the process of photosynthesis right?

yea snails do magic =]