new setup starting with fuge

[jesserettele]

I have a 5 week old 55 gallon temporary sump/fuge that I have set up with some live sand that ran for two weeks with 4 each 54 watt T5's. I have a pump with some filter pad on the intake which took out the haze of the live sand floating around and now acts as a power head for flow. After the dust settled I added a small skimmer which has been pulling off skimmate. After another 2 weeks I started to see brown algae forming on the sand and glass. I added Chaeto after one week of brown algae and it has now doubled in size and it looks like the 1st nitrogen cycle has ended. I added three turbo snails and the brown algae is slowly disapearing, but now I see some grean hair algae forming from the chaeto it appears.

I am hoping to use this set up to speed up and ease the cycling of my 75 when I finally get it up and going. Has anybody done this before? Should I do anything different to increase my success at starting a new tank to decrease new breakin problems?

Also, what do I do about the green hair algae? Cut it out or let it go?

[corkyGramma]

I'm surprised noone has answered yet... Don't worry Jesse, you are on the right track. First off, algae has a cycle too, when the hair algae eventually clears it will be gone for good as long as nitrates and phosphates are not allowed to accumulate. That being said not all test kit brands will work for phos. if you buy salifert you cannot fail. Also, I was wondering if your sand in the fuse was from an established tank- if new, dry or live sand? this will determine how stable your tank is, and how long it will be before it is suitable for more delicate life.

[phippsj]

I think I mentioned it to you when you came out, but I had about 100 pounds of live rock that I brought over from a cycled tank (I bought it from someone who was taking down their tank). My cycle appears to have reflected that of an existing tank cycle (no huge swing in amonia... it was very fast and gentle). Most of the polyps in my tank are those that came along on the rock.

That being said, I had a lot of hair algae growing. None in the sump, but a ton in the display. It stopped expanding after a couple of weeks. Then the snails and a tang hit it and it is nowhere to be seen.

Honestly I don't think hair algae is the one to be overly concerned with. Bacterial stuff... that is a bit of a pain since nothing seems to enjoy the taste

[jesserettele]

Thanks for the feedback. The sand was live from an established tank (left over after Kristy's project), and the chaeto was also from an established tank (rockmp). I haven't been testing the water, just specific gravity, do you think I should test it and do water changes? I didn't think i could get nitrate build up without live stock.

[rockmp]

You will need to do a water change even if you do not have any live rock in there. The bacteria from the live sand will help cycle it. Get a couple of pieces of live rock and put in there. Also get yourself a test kit.