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One thing I noticed when I came home is a pretty big outbreak of this brown algae. Is this a good or a bad sign?

The brown diatom phase is normal and doesn't last very long.I think mine lasted for a week to week and 1/2.I was able to siphon out most of the offensive looking areas.

Yes sir, this is the same tank. I agreed with everyone that I started of really fast and anxious. However, the tank is looking steller now. I'm trying to be patient but its hard. I actually went and bought a tank raised percula on 3 days ago. He seems to be doing okay, they're behavior is very strange.

Heres the next question. My tank has been growing this god awful brown algae that I'm trying to control, but its extremely hard. If I could pinpoint what this algae is it would be hair algae, but not too sure. Even though its normal, I'm conserned. This stuff is growing all over my rock and I don't know how to clean it. I've tried using a small airline, but does nothing. Does anyone know how I can clean this stuff or get rid of it?

Is this the 68g bowfront you started with 6chromis a month ago? If it is I would say your test at 5ppm ammonia was correct and the lfs is wrong. You had to of gotten some ammonia from that. Buy a new ammonia test kit and try it again yourself. It's worth the money.

If I read this correctly you said "since day one there has never been any ammonia"
If you didn't get any Ammonia reading after you added the live rock I would question your test kit.

Okay, now heres the tricky part. Since day 1 there has never been ammonia. At week 2, (before I purchased any live rock) I showed about 2.5 ppm nitrate,0 ppm nitrites. I purchased all the live rock and nitrates went to 0, nitrites went to 5 ppm. Right now it is steady without any water changes at 5 ppm. I started out thinking I was going to do a fish only system, but then realized the importance of LV. I would estimate that I'm about half way through the cycle, seeing how I have some sort of "bacteria bloom" with this brown algae.
I guess I might just becoming impatient. I'm ready for my Clowns!!! I've come to realize that this hobby is not only an addiction, but also expensive and time consuming. One of the biggest things that take away my energy is when one of my fish die. I feel personally responisble for there well being.
The books tell you a very specific way on "cycling" a tank. I know that every system is different, so its not easy to generalize a cycle. I guess one of the biggest things that no one talks about is time. Does anyone agree?

When your ammonia is zero, and then your nitrites are zero, your cycle is basicly over. You will then get a slow increase in nitrates, this is normal and can be controled threw water changes.



Dan

So how far along in the cycle process would my tank be in? I know the rule is about a month or so, but I did everything backwards and added the live rock later rather than sooner. Its been cycling since the 4th of September.

completely normal, it will get real ugly before it gets better.

Dan

Well, I wouldn't say its a bad or a good sign. Its normal in the cycling process though.

I have recently purchased 35 pounds of cured live rock in my 70 gallon. I was wondering how much better the filteration will be with that much. I know everyone says 1 to 2 pounds per gallon, but 35 pounds of fiji rocks really fills up my tank. Thanks.

All the sand will become live.

As for your PH, that will swing during the cycle, don't belive yoru tests on PH. Once yoru nitrites drop, your nitrates will go up a bit. That will be the end of your cycle.



Dan

I did not know that about live sand. Will all my sand become "live" or just the 10 lbs I put in there? As far as the rock, I'm running some pretty nasty foam off my skimmer right now, so thats telling me that one of my peices of rock isn't cured fully. All my water tests are at zero with the exception of nitrites which are about 5ppm. I'm pretty sure that its on its way down though. All this rock has really done a number on my cycle. My ph has actually gone down too. It was at 8.3 with no rock and now its 7.9. I need to bring that up but the buffer that I bought scares me. I don't want to change the ph too quickly.

Carbon is mainly fo rthe removal of chemicals and medications. You should be able to remove it. As for your cycle, you will need to test your water. If ammonia is zero, and your nitrItes are also nero, or very near that, you should be good. Your mitrAtes may be around 20 or so. Over time your live sand will go in to denitrification cycle and convert nitrAtes in to nitrogen, you will see bubbles in your sand. This will take your nitrates down to ar very near zero.



Dan

Agree with the pourous rock. I've tried my best to get as pourous as possible. The tonga branch is a little strange to me, seeing how its almost like throwing a tree branch in my tank. Really cool though, I've got two green stars growing on it. Guess the branch was sold to the lfs right before I got there. Thats almost $40 in polyps. I hope it survives the rest of the cycle.
Question about carbon. I've heard that the effectiveness of the LV doesn't need carbon. Should I pull it and when? Right now I'm in day 25 of my cycle. Could I pull it now? I also have 2 chromis and a diamond goby.
My sand is 50 lbs of catalina sand, 15 lbs of aragonite, and 10 lbs of live sand. Hope this helps.

Something to keep in mind with LR is some is very porus, and will be a very large rock with little weight. Then you see another rock and it has a very high weight becuase it's solid. Porus rocks are best because it provides more surface area.



Dan

I'm with dthurs on this one, put in what looks good.
You have enough filtration there, when including rock, aquaclear, carbon, and skimmer.
By the way what type and size of substrate do you have?

I would get rid of the bio-max for sure, that will become a nitrate farm.You can still run carbon in the filter though.All that money you spent on live rock IS your filter.

I just purchased 10 more pounds of fiji rock and 10 pounds of tonga coral. That now puts me at 55 pounds. I don't know if I can afford anymore, I've now spent $280 on this stuff. Not to mention I really have no more room in my tank to put it. However, it does look really nice. Any thoughts? Plus I'm also running an Aqua Clear 110 with sponge,carbon,biomax. Should I turn this off and stop running it? My skimmer should be suffice for removal of wastes, but I'm not sure. Thanks for your comments.

1 or 2 pounds per gal is simply a general rule. Put in what you think looks good. The more rock you have, the more surface area you have for bacteria and other critters, such as bristle worms etc. This will help with the bio load of the tank, there for the faster it will recover from changes in the tank.




Dan