So I know there is not a for sure amount of days but I just thought I was done with my cycle until today I realized I never had my diatom bloom. Levels are all good, fed my tank yesterday. Still don't know why my water is so cloudy though. I will upload a picture when I get home from work. The tank is now 37 days old and I feel like there is something missing, like I haven't done something that would make it happen already.:sad:
Diatoms
- Thread starter kimismurf
- Start date
Did you use all lr and ls? If you did, sometimes you won't see a bloom. When I cycled my old 60g cube and 93g cube and red sea max 250 I never had a bloom. All three tanks where set up after breaking down the other. So I used all old lr from previous tanks. I did however use new sand but they were suppose to be ls. I did have a bloom on my 120g and I used lr and sand with it. So I'm not sure how to explain it.
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I used 1 bag of ls from the store which I'm sue was not as live as they say it is, and 2 bags of maine aquarium sand. I used 75% of lr from a guy on craigslist, 10% I bought from the store and the rest is base rock. The only thing I can think that might be holding it back is the lighting. My new lights came in last night so I'll see if that does it. I'm going to put them on tonight when I get home.
Edit:
I used 1 bag of ls from the store which I'm sue was not as live as they say it is, and 2 bags of maine aquarium sand. I used 75% of lr from a guy on craigslist, 10% I bought from the store and the rest is base rock. The only thing I can think that might be holding it back is the lighting. My new lights came in last night so I'll see if that does it. I'm going to put them on tonight when I get home.
Edit: OK, I don't know why it's on there twice like that but whatever lol
I spoke to soon. I see some brown popping up. Sorry it's a little blurry but you can see some brown on the sand and rock.
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How fine is that "marine aquarium sand"? Is it sugar fine, or oolite? Sometimes with finer sand, if your powerheads are pushing sand around you will get a lot of particles in the water. How cloudy is it? Is it see through, or milky? Can you tell if it is a lot of tiny bubbles? What kind of filtration are you using? If you have overflow/ect, are you using filter socks? If you are using some form of HOB system, do you have a carbon pad in it? When you set it up, did you add the sand to the water, or the water to the sand? Any stirring? Also, you mention not having a bloom, or whatever. Maybe the UV light, is letting some form of bacterial bloom in the water column. I have never experienced this, but I have read. Did you add your CuC yet? How long have you been running those lights from the FW tank? Maybe I am overloading the quetions...
I think it is finer than sugar. There is one bag of live sand in there which had some bigger pieces in it. It's mostly clear but I can see a lot of bubbles. I am using a odyssea 75s over the back skimmer and 2 power heads. When I set it up I added the water to the sand, I put a plate in the bottom where i poured the sand in. What is CuC? The tank ran with fw uv lights for 38 days, now it has T5.
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CuC is the "Clean up Crew". When you add the water to the sand, if it is that fine, it takes a while for the water to get to the bottom of the tank. Because it is such a fine grade, the pressure of the water compacts the sand. When I start a new tank, I will put a little water in the bottom of the tank, add the sand and stir. Then the plate to fill to the top. As the air from the bottom of the sand works it's way to the top of the tank, the dry sand is going to bubble out too. Maybe take a wooden spoon and stir it gently. No harmful gases have probably built up yet. The air bubbles.....I have heard (not yet experienced) that when you use new equipment and skimmers, that the tubes take a while to get a sort of slime coating, and will put out micro bubbles. These should clear up soon. Also, I use HOB equipment, the pressure of water dropping down into the water will force air down into the water giving off bubbles. Not the best, but fairly harmless.
When I added the water with the plate on top of the sand I did go back later and run my fingers threw the sand a bit. I have not added a cuc yet. I was afraid they would die. As for the bubbles coming from the water being forced back in the tank, I remembered the skimmer came with some sponges so I am going to put one on the return to see if that stopes the bubbles from being forced into the tank.
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That should help with the bubbles, aside from that though, it has cleared up a good bit? I do believe adding your inverts will be fine at this time. You say your cycle is complete? A little cloudy water should not bother them at all.
No more bubbles, it worked! My husband says it's clear, I say it's cloudy LOL. I have diatoms all over the tank, tomorrow I am picking up some turbo snails and hermit crabs. I really hope they do well. My fear is that they wont survive. My levels are all good though so I think they will be fine.
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They will eat the diatoms and be fine. If they do not clean it fast enough, you can purchase some Chemi-pure or chemi-clean or something like that, that remove silicates. I think the snails should be fine.
