Hello New to the bobbie and need input on whats going on with my cycle

[ejv1013]

Hello,:wave: my name is Jose, some of you may have seen me on the forum before. I am new to this hobby, and I am currently cycling my tank. I have a 90 gallon tank with a 29 gallon custom refuge. The refuge has a built in wet and dry section, followed by a refuge section, then followed by a small wet and dry section, and finally the skimmer and return pump section. I am running a reef octopus extreme 160. I have some micro algae in the refuge along with some live rock and 10Lbs of live sand. In the display tank I have 175Lbs of live sand which gives me 4 inches of live sand, and I have about 40-50Lbs of dry rock. Oh yea and the LFS told me that I should start my cycle with 2 green and blue chromes which after reading a few threads on here I learned isn't the only way to go, but unfortunately they told me other wise, and i believed them (Please forgive the noob) :worried: I have been cycling my tank for about five days....Okay now that you know what I am running, here is my issue. I am testing my water with a hagen test kit for ammonia and the test seems to give me 0 ammonia. Then when I test it for nitrite it gives me 0.1, and when I test it for ph it gives me 8.5. I been testing for ammonia, for the past week, and I have been getting 0 ammonia. I find it hard to believe sense I have 0.1 nitrite. What are your inputs about my situation. I also got a huge algae out break over night, but my refuge rock has no algae on it. Here are some pictures of my tank. please let me know what you think is causing it?

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0699.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0700.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0701.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0702.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0703.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0704.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0705.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0701.jpg

[ejv1013]

here are the rest of the pictures


http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0708.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0709.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0710.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0711.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0712.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0713.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0714.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0715.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0716.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0717.jpg

[ejv1013]

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff401/ejv101386/Aquarium/IMG_0707.jpg

one more picture thanks for your help in advance

[seapug]

You are seeing the normal progression of the cycle. Ammonia gives way to Nitrite which then gives way to Nitrate. The cycle is complete when ammonia and nitrite both become undetectable.

[ejv1013]

Oh ok, but what i was wondering if is normal for the ammonia to be a 0 when is only been one week?

[seapug]

It's not unheard of, but it's still good to give the tank a full month of cycling to be safe.

[richardinphx]

your algae is processing the nitrogen in the ammonia..... if you didnt have the fuge then you would have had an intial sky high ammonia spike..
norma.. the algae on the rocks will go away in 30-45 days

[Lawenforcer]

I am having the same algae in my new 75 gal set-up. One day I woke up and there it was all over my rock and sand bottom. I was freaking out the same, but many have told me to be patient while the cycling is happening and it is normal. I am on the 3rd week of cycling. It sure don't look pretty but it will hopefully go away soon. Good luck with your new set-up!

[ejv1013]

oh ok thank you all for your input just crossing my fingers for the sake of my two chromes :)