Algae growing while cycling tank

[M&M]

Hi, my tank has been cycling for 3 weeks now. The Ammonia, Nitrite have gone down to 0' and the Nitrate is increasing. But there's a lot of algae on the rocks and sand. Why is this so? When I cycled my old tank, the algae growth wasn't this bad. What can I do about it?

[ytpmzy]

Every tank is different in a way or the other Don't worry much about it.

As of what you can do , more water frequent water change and less light time . since cycling don't really need much light or any light at all.

Happy reefing.

Cheers

p.s any one more experienced than me can feel free to correct me A-lot for me to learn still

[tofubox]

Theres also other factors that contribute to algae growth.

1. Since now ur tank is empty, there is nothing to out compete the algae

2. Lights effectively attribute mostly to algae growth

3. High TDS water also helps with algae growth

4. Phosphate may be leaching from your live rocks

If u are not intending to stock ur tank with corals yet, u can try "blackout" the tank first. Or put in some cheato / macroalgae to outcompete the algae.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

[M&M]

Oh. That's great info. I've actually got 2 chromis in it as tester fish. But I have a feeling is the long light hours now that you mention it. I'll definitely do a water change too as well since my cycle is ending soon.

[Daniel Poh Yang Zheng]

Or u can get a bicolor blenny to clear up the diatom.. Just did that for mine

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[nemokit]

I started my hobby 2 months back and encountering the same symptom as yours (new-tank syndrome). For mine, it is the brown algae (diatoms) that covers my sand bed and rocks. It is very un-sight to see my white 4ft tank turns brown.

To remove those brown algae on my rocks, I find these Trochus Snail (trochus sp.) very useful. I got 3 yesterday for my 4ft and this morning, the 3 rocks where I placed them on looks 50% cleaned up!

I did water changes a few weeks back, ran bio-pellets and reducing my lights to 5 hrs per day (due to my LPS corals), the brow algae seems to slowing down.

[M&M]

Ok cool. Ya my tank is up and running now. Starting to put in fishes but the algae is still there. So I bought 4 turbo snails which really worked magic. The only thing now is my tank gets the morning sun light, so it encourages the algae growth =(

[lotu112]

Had similar issues too and gotten the snails to solve my issue. Amazed by their cleaning . haha.

Does your sandbed has brown algae too? I am seeing slow growth but still trying to find a way to retain the white sandbed.

[M&M]

Yes my sand is turning brown too. Going to try and minimise my light.

[F&Mfishlover]

i faced the same problem as u last time. the algae will go away soon=) don't worry too much

[M&M]

Ya great. My algae is slowly disappearing thanks to my snails and tangs

[lotu112]

Bro, does minimising the light help with algae on the sand?

[M&M]

Yes it would help a lot. Unfortunately my tank is near a window and sunlight hits it every morning

[Notslig_Ant]

hi bros,

Yup, Turbo snails work wonders! I having some dinoflagellates which the snails are also helping to clean up!

I was recommended by ah beng to get a sea hare, but the sea hare he's trying to sell me is kinda big for my tank, so just stick with the snails for now.

[nemokit]

hi bros,

Yup, Turbo snails work wonders! I having some dinoflagellates which the snails are also helping to clean up!

I was recommended by ah beng to get a sea hare, but the sea hare he's trying to sell me is kinda big for my tank, so just stick with the snails for now.

I second that.

[Bulldozer]

I second that.

With a Valentini Toby in my tank ..... I think keeping the Snails alive is an issue. Sigh ..

[FaLong]

Where can I buy turbo snails in Singapore?

[alexcyf]

All LFS should have

[nemokit]

They look like this...

[acidjc]

Get algae blenny will eat these brown algae aka diatom algae

[Rainmakersg]

Algae during tank cycling is very normal.  Just need some patience.  It will go away.

[foo_pat]

Try to dose some bacteria , eg : Bact7 and Bio Digest, it will help a lot on the algae issue...