Is there such a thing as too much Diatom bloom during cycle.

[ReefGoat]

10g I.M Nuvo Started April 15th, 2018

Start of week 2 of Cycle, running no filtration or skimming, just power head, return pump, heater and lighting cycle along with my Tunze ATO with RO/DI. 10lbs of live rock that was bought from a display at LFS, 1 inch live sand bed. 

 

I saw an ammonia peak spike of 3ppm which I achieved from kick starting, by adding "pure ammonia" on start up day 1. By the end of Week 1 my Ammonia levels are at 0, as of this past Monday the 23rd. On Sunday the 22nd I saw a Diatom bloom begin to spread to the sand bed from the rocks which I was excited to see as that tells me the Nitrogen cycle is progressing. Here we are in the 11th day of the cycle and the brown Diatom is starting to dominate the tank (mainly the sand bed) and it's looking pretty scary LOL. I am in no hurry by any means and was expecting a 4-6 week cycle (or longer). I was planning on doing my first water change as soon as I see the Nitrates peaking and at that point I was going to add my CUC. Is this a solid plan? Just keep waiting and watching? Or Is there something I should be doing to keep the Diatoms from engulfing the tank? When do the Diatoms become too much? 

[HarryPotter]

Mix up the sand, filter out the diatoms with floss. 

[Daveg99]

Probably shouldn't have added ammonia to a tank with live rock.   That will kill the inhabitants and critters.  

 

Read this.   Lots of good info.

 

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/

[ReefGoat]

On 2/2/2019 at 7:08 PM, Daveg99 said:

Probably shouldn't have added ammonia to a tank with live rock.   That will kill the inhabitants and critters.  

 

Read this.   Lots of good info.

 

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/

Yeah, it seems like it's been an eternity since this post. I've learned a lot lol.