sand from ocean,cycle cyano and cheato

[duneenworywifit]

well its been over a month now that Ive redid my tank.Basically everything that was in it before is init now,except the sand.This sand came from the ocean and its beautiful.My ammonia is at .25 with a red sea test kit,nitrate are 0,Alk is good and ph is good aswell.Ive a small cyano bloom going on (I call it small because Ive seen worse) and all inhabitants are fine.Now the way I see it is,this sand has stuff dying in it and its started a cycle in my tank.The cyano is mainly on my overflow glass and in the fuge,its now starting to grow on rocks in DT.this is telling me why my nitrates are at 0 because cyano is doing well,too well for my liking.What effects will this have on my cheato?Will it starve?Should I do a waterchange or would that prolong the cycle?I do use RODI water.Or should I suckup and clean all the cyano out and see what happens????What do you guys think would be the best thing to do???

 

[Amphiprion]

Doing water changes is fine during the cycle and it will not prolong anything. It should help preserve a bit more of the life in the sand and rock. The chaetomorpha should do well, unless you have exceedingly low parameters. They don't really use that much nitrate, though. They mostly acquire their own nitrogen sources from atmospheric nitrogen.

 

[duneenworywifit]

Ohhhhhkay!So do a waterchange cool.the cheato hasnt grown at all and I thought cheato eats nitrates aswell as phosphates,I dont want to run an ATS like I did in the past,would rather use or say, try cheato and just my skimmer.Plus this cheato is in kinda of a tight ball,should I pull apart to spread it out?

 

[Amphiprion]

Yes, thin it to maximize light exposure to all of it.

This is just curiosity, but why did you opt out of an ATS? The only downside to mine is the frequent maintenance. It will be more efficient than the Chaeto, but Chaetomorpha is easier to deal with for sure.

 

[duneenworywifit]

just wanting to try something new.who knows I might just chuck a bucket ATS on it later on down the road.

 

[Amphiprion]

That's cool. Give the Chaeto a shot. You may not need the extra capability of the ATS.

 

[Jstdv8]

cyano can be dealt with in 2 ways. add more flow in the areas that have cyano, and or kill the lights for 3 days. the advantage you have by leaving it in there and killing it is that it will release the nitrates so that the cheato will kick off again. Also keep your light on your cheato on a timer seperate from the lights in the tank, run them for 18 hours off for 6 but shut them off during peak daylight hours in your DT. this will allow the cheato to work at its best and grab the goodies while the other macros are asleep And it will also keep your PH in a fairly constant range rather than a dip at night and higher during high light hours.

 

[duneenworywifit]

I had an alge scrubber before on the same lighting schedule,so Im cool with that.Just a little new to the cheato vibe going on in the fuge.Water is ready for WC as I started last night.So Ill just clean as much as I can and change the water and see what happens.Must say though my snails are munchin on this stuff pretty good might just leave it for them.I dont care how long it takes them as long as it gets done.Everybody goes thru this Im sure alge blooms cyano and millions of questions to ask.Hell I ask questions that I think I know the answers to just to be sure!Some times I feel ive forgotten more than I know lololo.So I think tonight Ill sit back with a cold beer see whats in the tin and watch the cheato grow!