Quick question regarding Diatom Bloom

[Cardiak21]

I'm starting a brand new tank and im using dry rock with "dry" sand. I started off using a dead piece of shrimp to start the cycle and after a few days i pulled it out and am ghost feeding it daily. I am currently going through a diatom bloom. Current parameters are:

 

Amn: 2.0

Nitrite: 1.0

Nitrate: 0 to 5, hard to tell with the color chart

 

Day 11 of cycle.

 

Do I continue to ghostfeed the tank?

 

Will the diatoms disappear on it's own or will I need a CUC once AMN hits 0? 

 

Thanks

[MBVette]

Every new tank goes through a bloom. Give it time, just part of the cycle.

[Coral Hind]

+1 Every tank gets them and they will fad out as the tank matures. If you don't have any corals or fish then you really don't need much light right now so save some power and reduce the lights if you want. That will also reduce diatom growth until you are ready to add a clean up crew that will help control the bloom.

 

You should continue to feed a little bit to keep the bacteria population going. Did you any kind of commercial bacteria starter to help speed the process up? I would recommend that if you haven't.

[Cardiak21]

Ahh thanks for the info. No i didn't use a commercial start up, is there one that comes recommended? I thought all that was needed was just a source for the ammonia to build and it would sort itself out. 

[Coral Hind]

I think when you start with dead rock and sand you are limited to what types of bacteria the system will contain so it's best to seed it first to spped the process up and give you different strains of bacteria. I don't really like one brand over another, just what is on sale. I've used MB7, Dr. Tims, Stability, and currently I have the Dr Foster and Smith brand.

[GaryL]

or you could seed with a cup of live sand from others tanks... as long as they dont have bad critters in it. 

[Cardiak21]

Hmmm maybe I'll try both. Thanks

[AlanM]

If you are local to DC, marine scene in Herndon has a tank with live sand from the gulf that gets refilled often. I got some and ended up with pods, small pink bristleworms, spaghetti worms, etc. all good stuff plus bacteria.

[OcalaReefGirl]

I used Dr. Tims and not sure about all of the bugs that come with the sand, but I do have lots of bacteria and my tank has stabilized nicely.

[st9z]

My nano tank was towards the end of the cycling process and I had some diatoms as well. I turned off the lights for a couple of days and the diatoms disappeared. You can give that a try.

 

 

 

[zygote2k]

Diatom growth is an important part of the cycling process. When you limit their growth, you're retarding your system and that process of diatom growth may now come when another step in the algal succession is occurring. I have always believed that running the lights and skimmer are just as important on day 1 as they are on day 60.

A light cycle will also go towards establishing a night/day cycle in an otherwise chaotic tank environment. Read about "algal succession".