Brown Algae (fishless Cycle)

[Zachary1941]

Hi,
Im a little concerned about the Brown algae in the tank...Im am now into the 16th day of a fishless cycle..i read the article on fishless cycle, and it said ... At the end of the cycle the tank will look terrible with cloudy water and brown algae everywhere.


My tank probably has a while to go yet Present readings Nitrites 3.(Going up daily)
Ammionia processed daily approx 2. (Topping up to 4)
Phd 8.2
Temp 81.
KH is 4.


So probably still have a few weeks to go.. Is this Brown Algae ,normal at this stage of a fishless cycle..If not what to i have to do please Regards Zac

 

[tom_os]

yeah normal, im at the same stage at the moment.

when you do the big water change at the end scrub it all off everything and syphon it out

 

[waterdrop]

One approach to avoiding algae is to fishless cycle with a "blacked out" tank either bare glass or just with substrate. For killing various type of algae at least one member reported increased success by taping -two- layers of the thick type of black plastic material that's used for garbage bags or, actually, the sheet stuff for other purposes. So this would probably work well for a blacked out fishless cycle too. There'd be some light leakage when you went to test and recharge ammonia, but that would be brief.

I believe the reports of beginners using this approach are so rare because because our beginners come to fishless cycling only after they were already planning and starting their vision of a beautiful tank with decorations, rocks, wood, plants etc. (probably even fish, before they knew...) And then there are plenty of other circumstances like spouses... can you imagine the look on the spouses face when they see a black plastic box in their living room.. where they've already been upset there are not fish? Or kids, who like to look in the tank...

~~waterdrop~~