At what point

[JMorris271]

HI Reefers
When do you begin cleaning off the diatoms and new algae growth? It's a new tank but I did cycle it earlier and there was tons of HA everywhere. Due to other reasons, had to shut it down before it had fish.
Thanks

[Sk8r]

Suggest GFO...that'll help. Rock and sand leach phosphate into the water and until it goes, you get nasty growth. Change the medium monthly until success.

[scooter31707]

I don't really mess with the rocks and sand. I got some CUC to handle. I just cleaned the glass off about every other day.

[mcgyvr]

as soon as possible... or it will go away on it own and you don't have to do anything..
However... If you aren't taking care of the reason that its there in the first place then it won't go away,etc..

example.. hair algae.. If your nitrates are still elevated then it will continue to grow and won't just go away..

Can't tell if you are restarting a tank or if its just sat there for a while and is already cycled..

You could always do a peroxide dip/scrubbing on each rock then rinse and put them back in..
But again.. They could just come right back..

I had bad GHA on the tank I just started as the rock was reused from an old tank.. Well.. tank cycled and the GHA was still growing.. Over a few weeks/water changes the nitrate levels dropped to nothing and the GHA was turning white/brown.. So I took each rock out and scrubbed/peroxide and put them back.. GHA is NOT returning on those rocks... It would have eventually fizzled away but that death in the tank isn't good either so I chose to remove it before it caused a problem..

[JMorris271]

I am not expecting an explosion of GHA here. I know this rock has been leaching phosphates 3 yrs now and is pretty much petered out.
I am just asking do I begin cleaning glass before I see something growing or do I let some grow and save it for them tang and foxface.
At this point in time, I need to add algae to the tank for my tangs.