Brown Algae - Diatoms?

[SaltieGal]

Hi All

I started a 55 gal tank just about a month ago. I had 40 lbs argonite live sand, about 50 lbs of cured live rock running wetdry filter and pump, heater and lights. I had been adding Microlift-Special Blend weekly. My water paramaters were 0 until I got the last batch of 10 lbs of rock that was not fully cured according to the LFS so now I am at about 60 lbs. About 2 days later I got a slight ammonia reading then few more days got nitrite slight reading but now I am back to 0 paramaters with this brown algae-diatom stuff all over the rock. I was a bit overboard with lighting becasue I had maroon algae growing and also what I am thinking are sponges - tall tan colored the width of a finger so I thought light would help. I also just started a protein skimmer that now at day three is starting to skim brown skummy water with alittle foam.

I have read conflicting ideas as to what to do when the tank is cycling. One was to leave it alone no water changes and it will clear up the other plus my LFS said to do water change of 10% and I can add a fish. Well, if I felt the tank cycled I would add a fish, but these slight elevations of ammonia and nitrite to me does not mean it cycled. What do you guys think cause I am compleatly confused.

[paul26]

since no one is answering your post ill try and help you with the advice given to me in the same situation. i have a 90 gal that started with 20#s uncured lr and 40# base. i started a cycle with an ammonia spike( assisted with some flake food). about 2-3 weeks later everything went down and i hit a huge diatom break out which is completely normal. during the cycling i did run my skimmer and did no water changes. at this time after this the cycle was complete i added a CUC and a week later the diatoms were gone and my params were amm:0 nitrite:0. so my tank has been up for about a month now and i have no diatoms and i am slowly adding fish.

hope that helps, again this is advice given to me from exp.aquarists via reef central :)

[polyp02]

From my experience 5 months I would say that you just got a spike by adding uncured rock and this will continue to happen when adding stuff that need to cure first. After 5 months I am still getting diatoms (i think). Also make sure you have enough circulation and good lighting (which is something I may not have). Take a look at this pic of my 75gal. tank 5 months and my sand still gets brown. I only feed once every other day have my lights(1actinic&16700K) 12hrs a day and change 20% of water every week.
http://i806.photobucket.com/albums/yy345/polyp831/75gal_Reef/Display_Tank.jpg

[SaltieGal]

Thanks guys. I was running the lights 12 hours because of my nutty workschedule and I am going to cut them back to 8 or nine and run the actinic alittle more and see if that helps. I'll wait another week before a water change - hopefully it will settle down. I am now researching what kind of CUC I am going to put in.