when to start seeing algae
 

i setup my 55gallon with RO/DI water and some rock that wasn't really teaming with life.......at what point do most people start to see hair algae or what not? first week, second week.....

Its been one week for our tank and we are starting to see little patches of algea

I had good lighting on my fuge from day 1 and it expoded with Algea within about 2 weeks. I did not see any algea in my DT for the first month and the tank was done with the cycle...(Actually I induced a second cycle by adding flake food....(No fish were in the tank)...no algea at all in the DT...I am sure it was there, just not in a very noticable form yet.

I did a significant upgrade on my DT lighting...basically from a single cheap freshwater light to T5s and my DT has "bloomed" (so to speak)...I added a "small" clean up crew and the rest will play out normally (hopefully)

In short...lighting will make a difference during the cycle......

I am not sure that there is any benefit to this...It is just the way it worked out since I did not have the DT lights during the cycle....My DT will just need to play a little catch up to the faster growth.

Mine was about two weeks. I also added NovaExtreme Pro after 1 week and the following week it exploded.

GOING ON 1 YEAR WITH NO ALGEA, KNOCK ON WOOD