Help

I am into a week and a half of my of cycling my tank and my live rock ,sand, everything is brown no idea whats going on.
PH 7.8
Ammo 0.8
Nitrate10
Nitrite 0.2
Grav 1.025

 

diatom algae.
cut your lighting off

 

What caused it was light??

 

yes light and silicates. once it uses up all the silicates it will die and be replaced with green algae.

to minimize algae turn your lights off during a cycle. it will make the bacteria eat nutrients not algae.

 

What about my fish dont they need some light?? DO I need to clean the brown stuff off or just let it be?

 

can you turn only part of your lighting on?
or is you tank in a brightly lit room?
i would scrape it off the glass. other then that i would leave it.

 

Dont touch the rock? Will it just go away on its own?

 

LOL Lights have nothing to do with it , I myself would simply be running actinics only while cycling to promote coralline growth . But diatoms area first in the algae chain you must simple keep the system running and allow them to fade away what you are seeing as brown dust are the dead ones skeletal remains aka unbleached diatom filter powder.

 

actinics what is that? So you say just let it be?

 

with out light it will die.

you may have alittle bit after the you turn the lights back on after the cycle, but it shouldnt be as bad as what there is now. you will go through a couple different types of algae, first brown, then green, then coraline(assuming its reef lighting.)


if its still very bad we may need to go more in depth and examine your husbandry techniques. but as of right now i would just chalk it up to the cycle.

if you develop hair algae or cyano or bubble. come back and we will examine your husbandry