Cycling Questions

[Radioheed]

Ok I'm at about week three for the tank and week two for my LR (10lbs uncured fiji). Today when I turned the lights on I noticed some diatom blooming, and also say a few amphipods on my rocks (they hid once the lights came on).

The questions:

1) I have been running my lights (see sig) for 6 hours per day...But they have only been on a couple hours today and I swear I notice more algae blooming already. Should I cut back?

2) I have been running a HOB filter to run some carbon. The water is clear now so should I take out the cartridge? I know that the bio media can be bad long term, but don't I want to encourage that growth now?

3) Are the amphipods good? How can I tell the difference between amphipods and other pods?

4) How you doin?

[Travis L. Stevens]

1) Your tank will go through various cycles. As bacteria and algae populations wax and wan, there really isn't much you can do about it that wouldn't stifle a future cycle. If anything, it would just put it off. I would just turn the PCs on any time that you are around. They aren't necessary to have on. In fact, if you truly wanted to, you could save a little on electricity and leave them off until you are finished cycling. All the critters in the tank will be fine with ambient lighting.

2) I'm assuming that you have been running the carbon since at least day one of putting the live rock in the tank if not since the tank has been started. If that's the case, it would probably be a good idea to replace the carbon. I wouldn't encourage any growth on any biomedia, truthfully. It technically takes away from the power in the rock and sand's bacteria population by outcompeting for food, so to speak.

3) Amphipods are great little guys. They won't hurt anything. I would look on Melev's ID site for general identification of all the different little pods. If you want to be more specific, you can always ask on here.

4) I'm doing great. Can't wait for my four day weekend. Thanks for asking :D

[sir_dudeguy]

you could cut back on lighting. But i found that on my 55 it didnt matter, and i only had a NO fluorescent bulb on there...nothin w/any power. The brown still kicked in for a couple weeks right about at 1 month of being set up (about the same as yours...plus a week)

IMO, you should take out that bio media now, because the bacteria's gonna grow somewhere...why let it grow there and then when you take it out have it all be gone??? idk..just my opinion. But how big is this tank?

Amphipods in general are good...but there are a few bad ones i believe. Actually i'm pretty sure i saw that red bugs are a type of amphipod. And are you sure yours are amphipods and not isopods or copepods? Amphipods are the largest (that i've seen anyways) and they're just kinda grey/silver/white. check on melevs site...i think its melevsreef.com? i cant remember because it never works for me w/out a link lol, but its a great site. It has all those pods and stuff on there.

[Reno Reef]

I too am going through the begining cycle. And my diatom bloom kicked in after 5 days. I am running my lights on a 12/12 cycle.

[Travis L. Stevens]

Almost all "pods" are good, and the most notorious "bad pods" are isopods such as Cirolanid Isopods.

[sir_dudeguy]

12 and 12 is probably just gonna encourage more algae growth. Like travis said, theres not a whole lot to do to get rid of it immediatly, but you can at least keep the lights off or on short hours (like only when you wanna look at the tank) so as not to help the stuff out more.

[sir_dudeguy]

ya and i believe those isopods that travis meantioned have big black eyes so they're pretty easy to tell apart. Can someone put the link to melevs id pages please? i cant ever get in w/out a link, so i gotta save that page lol.

[Travis L. Stevens]

If you look at the top of the forum, it's stickied up there. I think it's www.melevsreef.com/id

[Travis L. Stevens]

If you see this guy in your tank, get it out immediately ;) :lmao:

Deep Sea Isopod
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/04etta/background/isopods/bathynomus_giganticus_220.jpg

[color=silver] Don't worry, you won't see one in your tank[/silver]

[Radioheed]

Thanks for all the replies!


I can see what you mean about taking out the bio bag thing...already out.

Had no idea Melev had an ID spot too...http://melevsreef.com/id/...he is the man! Yeah definitely amphipods, they're really big (for pods). looks nothing like that huge monster above!!! my god that things scary!

[Travis L. Stevens]

You think that's scary. Check out this guy

Tongue Eating Isopod
http://inkycircus.typepad.com/jargon/images/tongue_eating_isopod_1.gif
http://elegans.uky.edu/blog/pics/Cymothoa_exigua3.jpg

http://tolweb.org/Isopoda

[sir_dudeguy]

lol ya amphipods are pretty big. Mine are about the same size as those huge red ants (well..idk if you've got them in FL, but we do in az :) )

I actually had that big isopod as my background on my computer for a while lol.

[Radioheed]

ooh we've got all kinds of bugs/ants round here...we train roaches as pets. lol jk. yeah theyre about that size. they freaked me out cause im so used to an empty tank


well I now know why isopods are bad...and suddenly I'm hungry for fish........is that wrong? does that make me a bad reefer?

[sir_dudeguy]

lol imo it doesnt make you a bad reefer in any way, shape, or form lol. I love fish. Had the best smoked salmon in nicaragua over the summer....had like a shrimp sauce over it...mmmmmmm

and not all isopods are bad i dont think.