CoopMD Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 My tank hit 17 (days) today and the readings have not yet leveled out -- Ammonia is 0, but Nitrates and Nitrites are still 20 and 5 ppm. I've done some water changes since Ammonia hit 0. I run lights 11 hr /day. So I have GHA (see ...) Do I need to change anything to deal with the GHA -- or just wait until I get level readings and add a hungry CUC? Link to comment
OClownsandNanos Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 I am wondering why you are running lights for 11 hours a day. My tank's established with corals and I only run them for 7 hours. That will definitely contribute to algae growth. Link to comment
peewee1467 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 yeahhhhh... usually youll get a diatom bloom after a cycle; not GHA. and theres no need for lights. yes, it's cool to have it on to look at you tank but that's wayyyy too much. i would manually pick out the algae and you should probably keep the lights off till that stuff dies out. You def. wanna take care of that before adding corals otherwise it's a pain in the ass Link to comment
CoopMD Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 yeahhhhh... usually youll get a diatom bloom after a cycle; not GHA. and theres no need for lights. yes, it's cool to have it on to look at you tank but that's wayyyy too much. i would manually pick out the algae and you should probably keep the lights off till that stuff dies out. You def. wanna take care of that before adding corals otherwise it's a pain in the ass Will I lose the Coraline algae without lights ? Link to comment
egos4life Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Will I lose the Coraline algae without lights ? I think what they are trying to get at is you don't have to run your lights for as long as you are. And that its not necessary to run them while your cycling your tank but if you want to more power to you its not going to hurt anything just tone down the length you have them running... Link to comment
CoopMD Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 I think what they are trying to get at is you don't have to run your lights for as long as you are. And that its not necessary to run them while your cycling your tank but if you want to more power to you its not going to hurt anything just tone down the length you have them running... Gee"!?! One book says run the lights so any life (good algae) lives. Others say the algae is Ok in a cycle. Just be prepared to have a CUC in when all the numbers are 0. Others panic: all GHA is bad. Where is "the source" when you need it? And? Won't the gha die when the nitrates drop? Like, there's is nothing in there to feed it Link to comment
jesus_cs92 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 I had a LOT of GHA all over the tank, one or two weeks after i started the tank, in a couple of weeks it just started to disapear, i guess it overgrows because of the excess nitrates during the first weeks, so i would say you should wait. I had a LOT of GHA all over the tank, one or two weeks after i started the tank, in a couple of weeks it just started to disapear, i guess it overgrows because of the excess nitrates during the first weeks, so i would say you should wait. And really your GHA can´t be compared to the GHA I had......just wait Link to comment
TinyGiant Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 i run my lights from 8am to 11pm lol.. all depends on feeding and proper filtration... balanced right and you should be able to run them from sun up to sun down.. Link to comment
jfarabaugh Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 lights off during cycle period. Link to comment
brandolando4 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 i had gha before i had diatoms!! Link to comment
ciedre Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 lights off during cycle period. I disagree. During my cycle I ran lights on for 8 hours a day. I have never had any algae problems during or after my cycle. In fact I got several beneficial macro algae out of my live rock because of it. 11 hours is excessive though...lol. High nitrate, nitrite phosphates, silicates, old light bulbs that have changed spectrum can all contribute to GHA outbreaks. Run some chemi-pure elite at the end of the cycle...get that water wet! Link to comment
brandolando4 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 yah im a noob but definatly leave the lights on, i got a bunch of macro algae out of it as well!! Link to comment
nanoty Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Wait until its over and add CUC as needed. No need to rush stuff. I've had huge, I mean huge GHA outbreaks during a cycle that disappeared days later when it finished. I recommend turbo snails. Have fun. And lights off for cycle, blah. Link to comment
jokim Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Just wait till it is cycled and put a cuc to clean it. i had my tank running for 2 weeks from an established tank and hair alge was starting to pick up. one emerald crab cleaned half of it on the first night Link to comment
jfarabaugh Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Not directed at anyone in particular and not trying to start any wars (just a friendly reminder) but once again I will go down this path. There is no for sure standard CUC member that will eat GHA so just because your cleanup crew ate it does not mean it will work for the next person. 9 times out of 10 the person is just adding a higher bioload to the tank (CUC members poop too). As far as lights on during the cycle….IMHO I would rather kill $5.00 in crappy macros and $10.00 is crappy hitchhiker corals in order to not start off with a huge algae outbreak after the cycle. Most people end up taking down tanks because of runaway algae outbreaks. Might as well start off with as much of an algae free tank as possible. Same thing again just because it disappeared for one person after the cycle ended doesn’t mean it happen at the end of the next tanks cycle. Link to comment
ciedre Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Not directed at anyone in particular and not trying to start any wars (just a friendly reminder) but once again I will go down this path. There is no for sure standard CUC member that will eat GHA so just because your cleanup crew ate it does not mean it will work for the next person. 9 times out of 10 the person is just adding a higher bioload to the tank (CUC members poop too). As far as lights on during the cycle….IMHO I would rather kill $5.00 in crappy macros and $10.00 is crappy hitchhiker corals in order to not start off with a huge algae outbreak after the cycle. Most people end up tearing down tanks because of runaway algae outbreaks. Might as well start off with as much of an algae free tank as possible. Same thing again just because it disappeared for one person after the cycle ended doesn’t mean it happen at the end of the next tanks cycle. In most cases a GHA outbreak can be taken down with water quality, or getting lighting issues under control. Most people experience GHA or cyano during or after their cycle, and the unlucky ones get dinoflagellates lol. It has to do with the high amounts of phosphates and silicates that come in from the new rock and sand. Also GHA can work in your favor, if you ever wanted a Rainsford Goby for example, you must have GHA to support them. But what ever, each to there own, I still support the lights on cycle as its a more natural approach and algae is an important part of a reef. Link to comment
googoomas Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Don't worry about the coraline, you will get plenty of it down the road. Not worth the hassle later on by cycling with your lights. Save the bulbs, save the energy and save your tank, you'll be happy you did down the road cause it will save you money and time. Link to comment
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