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
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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It's funny i have read about all of this stuff but when it finally happened I freaked out 