A new day-new question!

Good Morning everyone!

So Ive done my morning inspection of my tank and noticed a few different things.
1st- There are all these really tiny (and I mean tiny) white bug looking things all over my tank. They crawl all on the sides. Swim out into the water. I thought I had debris and micro bubbles but now I see they are moving.
Are these copepods?? Ewwww...I put my hand and arm in the tank to do stuff all the time. I have a ton of amphipods and I don't like touching them either!!
2nd- I also noticed from looking across the tank that the other side of the glass had fine hairs on it. Maybe a couple of mm's long but about a 4" diameter area. Is this the beginning of an algae bloom?? My magnetic cleaner took it off but just want to make sure everything is progressing correctly.
Thanks!!

 

the algae growth is normal, amphipods and copopods are fine, what you dont want are isopods

 

Oh that is so disgusting!! My son did the whole "Aquasaurs" for Christmas. Those are Triops and they were gross enough!! Is that you holding it? What a way to start my morning. Heading to the shower. I'll be checking my feet now! LOL.

Since I can't tell what these buggers are since they are so small I guess I better hope!!!
And, do I still keep the protein skimmer off??

 

He is the Guru!!!!! I have tons of amphipods and copopods in my tank....

 

Sounds like your tank is coming along, congrats. Keep us posted and of course, post pics.

 

OK, please please please somebody please tell me if I can turn on my protein skimmer? I'm having a copepod explosion in my tank!! And here comes the brown algae.

I am now seeing it starting on the sand. Yea!!!

Can I post pics using photobucket here?

 

I don't turn my skimmer on until the tank is about 3-4 months old but I don't use live rock so there's nothing for the skimmer to really do until then.

And yes, you can post Photobucket pics here

 

But doesn't it help oxygenate the water too? Or is it only a filter??

 

It doesn't oxygenate the water as much as most people think it does. It's not really a filter either but it does pull organics out of the water. Do you have any fish in the tank? What kind of "other" filtration have you got on the tank? Sump? Canister filter?

 

I have the Red Sea Max so I only have the protein skimmer, mechanical sponge filter. No fish yet as I'm at the end of my second week of cycling.

So speaking of cycling....
Since I've started the tank my parameters have been:
Salinity 1.024
pH 8.2
ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates are rising. Started at 0 now at 20 ppm.

Since I have tons of life in my tank (amphipods, copepods, dusters, pineapple sponges etc...) shouldn't I have had some ammonia by now? There has been some die off of amphipods. I see the carcasses floating around!
The only thing that has changed is the Nitrates.
I was thinking of adding a limited clean up crew since the algae is starting.
Any advice? Thanks