Algae In A Fishlessly Cycling Tank? Help!

[KingKenny]

Am two weeks into a fishless cycle and have developed an algae problem. There seem to be two types.

1) Green, long and stringy, wispy stuff on the front glass. It is long and appears slimy, spanning probably 8 or 9 inches with only one small part actually attached to the glass. The rest is just moving in the tank current. It's not in a straight piece but going in all directions.

2) Same as the first stuff but brown. This though is in one single half centimetre wide, 15-20cm long strand coming off a plant. There is also a disting of brown algae on several rocks in the tank but I don't know if it's the same stuff.

Is this the dreaded Blue/Green Algae? As expected during a cycle my nitrates are sky high. The water has also become cloudy.

Should this be expected in a cycling tank?

 

[jayjay]

the algae's 8 or 9 inches long wow i've never had any that bad

as to cloudy water i've only experiance that in a cycle with fish (new tank syndrome)

how long do you have your fish tank lights on each day?

what are the water tests?

 

[Nina]

It is possible that your lights are on too long each day or that the tank is too near the window and receives alot of natural sunlight.

If your tank lights are on all day, put them on a timer and make sure they have a break of a couple of hours during the day. This will help stop the algae growing (might not stop it completly but should help)

 

[jayjay]

what you planning on putting in the tank after it's cycled???

may i suggest algae eaters if you keep doing what you are atm

seriously, you need to cut down the amount of light going into that tank.

 

[dthoffsett]

Cloudy water could be a sign of a bacterial bloom, if it is, it should clear up in a few days. Since you are doing a fishless cycle, you don't need the lights on at all unless you have live plants. If you have live plants, I'd check with the people in the planted forum and let them know what kind of plants you have and see what they recommend for the least amount of time you can have the lights on. If your tank is near a window or gets a lot of light, try to cover the windows if you can to limit the amount of light hitting the tank, alternately you could block off the side of the tank that the light is hitting with cardboard. Good luck, hoped I helped a little.

 

[KingKenny]

Cloudy water could be a sign of a bacterial bloom, if it is, it should clear up in a few days. Since you are doing a fishless cycle, you don't need the lights on at all unless you have live plants. If you have live plants, I'd check with the people in the planted forum and let them know what kind of plants you have and see what they recommend for the least amount of time you can have the lights on. If your tank is near a window or gets a lot of light, try to cover the windows if you can to limit the amount of light hitting the tank, alternately you could block off the side of the tank that the light is hitting with cardboard. Good luck, hoped I helped a little.

I have blinds in my house and so no direct light actually gets on the tank at all. I'll keep lights at a minimum now.

As for the bacterial bloom, will it be the cycling bacteria that are blooming? Just hoping but not not expecting you to say yes!

 

[Plecs&Puffers]

im suffering with the same problem... what did you do