diatoms are out

haha Im still gettin the hang of it

 

If you are still getting nitrite readings your nitrogen cycle isnt done yet. You will know when its done when you only have nitrate readings of 15ppm or less

 

My nitrate reading was zero ... .. hmmmm

 

Hey Mkizla,

Did you start with dry rock, cured...... something in between, how about sand?

Diatoms are in a whole different ball park than algae and the nitrifying bacteria. If you have silicates and you do just from the new tank alone, diatoms can pop up any time IMO. Usually mid to later in the cycle but anytime really.

 

I used 20 gallon of ri di from a friend, and 10g of ro water that I use at home, and used 95% of dead rock, 30 lb of dead sand with cup of live sand

 

Then you probably have a ways to go cycle wise. Water from an established tank hold very little nitrifying bacteria IMO, not even close to what a small piece of LR holds.

If it were my tank (and I wish it were), I would add some fish food to ramp things up a little.

 

yeah, i added some fish food there in first day, guess just wait it out, pods are starting to pop fast though i can see

 

To get a good cycle started you need to get the ammonia up to around 5ppm.. I used 6 medium sized shrimp im my 90 gal.. Ammonia read 5+, it was dark green.. If you dont get a good spike of ammonia you may have some bacteria in there but there wont be alot. If you add fish without a good bacteria population the ammonia will start rising because there isnt enough bacteria there to consume it.. My cycle took about 2 weeks, but about 9 days in I added 30lbs of cured live rock and that cycled my tank quick. I then tested it a few days later by adding some food for 3 days in a row, never saw any ammonia, nitrite went to .25 the first day then all zeros.. So I knew the tank had a good amount of bacteria..

Shane.