Chapter IV: Goodbye Diatoms, Hello Algae!
So I'm pretty happy with my Clean-up Crew. It's only been a few days and the brown gooze has receded significantly!
This is the same angle as the shot posted above - so it's pretty clear that the Janitors are doing their jobs!
But today I noticed I'm starting to get green hairy algae. Some on the "glass" (which I scrubbed off with my handy-dandy don't-get-your-hands-wet algae brush). But it's also starting to appear on some of my rocks (/dead coral fragments).
Difficult to photograph, but it's on the Coral rock on the left
I know that this, too, is a normal part of cycling. I'm not sure how long it's supposed to last and/or when I should be alarmed. I've read "horror stories" on various sites about hair algae completely taking over and destroying ppl's tanks (I don't wanna go there!).
Here's what I've done, so far:
20% water change last night (using Seawater from Neptune's). I've got GFO in there to keep the phosphates down. I've cut my lights back to 8 hours/day - as of today - when I first noticed the algae.
I've ordered proper Salifert Test Kits (off the internet 'cuz I'm cheap - err - frugal!), but they haven't arrived yet. For now, according to my Crappy Test Strips, Nitrite, Ammonia and Nitrate are all at zero. pH is at appx 8.2-8.4 and salinity (using my accurate refractometer) is at 1.022.
So - any thoughts on when I should panic? What more should I be doing (if anything)?
Thanks!
(I'm anxious for Chapter TBD: My First Cool Coral)
So I'm pretty happy with my Clean-up Crew. It's only been a few days and the brown gooze has receded significantly!
This is the same angle as the shot posted above - so it's pretty clear that the Janitors are doing their jobs!
But today I noticed I'm starting to get green hairy algae. Some on the "glass" (which I scrubbed off with my handy-dandy don't-get-your-hands-wet algae brush). But it's also starting to appear on some of my rocks (/dead coral fragments).
Difficult to photograph, but it's on the Coral rock on the left
I know that this, too, is a normal part of cycling. I'm not sure how long it's supposed to last and/or when I should be alarmed. I've read "horror stories" on various sites about hair algae completely taking over and destroying ppl's tanks (I don't wanna go there!).
Here's what I've done, so far:
20% water change last night (using Seawater from Neptune's). I've got GFO in there to keep the phosphates down. I've cut my lights back to 8 hours/day - as of today - when I first noticed the algae.
I've ordered proper Salifert Test Kits (off the internet 'cuz I'm cheap - err - frugal!), but they haven't arrived yet. For now, according to my Crappy Test Strips, Nitrite, Ammonia and Nitrate are all at zero. pH is at appx 8.2-8.4 and salinity (using my accurate refractometer) is at 1.022.
So - any thoughts on when I should panic? What more should I be doing (if anything)?
Thanks!
(I'm anxious for Chapter TBD: My First Cool Coral)
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