Tank cycle question

[brady816]

Ok guys this has me scratching my head for sure and i hope someone can help me out with this. On my first ever saltwater tank not knowing what i was doing i used tap water to mix my saltwater and add my live rock and never had a cylce of diatoms (spelling) or any bad algea. But with this new tank i used ro/di water and got some base rock from this store and now im having a case of diatoms on the base rock and sand bed. Here is my question the store was 1 hour and 30 mins away would that cause a big die off from the rock? It was wrapped in newspaper and wet with saltwater. The tank has been running for about 4 weeks now here are my readings im using the salfert tests. Also i havent seen a big jump in ammonia or any of these readings yet i test almost every day. The tds is reading 120 going in and 0 going out. Also i havent done a wc yet and im running carbon and my skimmer.Also im running my lights for 9 hours.

Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
ph 7.8 this morning before the lights come on
cal 400
Alk 9.3 dkh Kinda high i think???

 

[brady816]

Does flow help with the diatoms on the sand bed?? Its only in the corners of the tank..

 

[Krish]

Hmmm...This is the first thought I had come to mind. The fact that you started your first tank with live rock and this one with base rock may be the difference. Although you may have used tap water for your first tank, maybe the tap water wasn't so bad as in some areas, tap water is actually suitable for saltwater aquariums. In addition, depening on how cured the rock was in the first setup may mean how much more easier it was for the rock to make quick work of any waste that entered the tank or what nitrates etc which may have come from the tap water if it was at all present in it. As for the new setup, using base rock means it has no life (not sure why they would wrap it in wet paper if it was just base rock but anyways) your rock, if actually base rock, will have to become colonized with bacteria and therefore the rock would have to cure and the tank would have to cycle. So in a nut shell, you may have lucked out with the first setup having cured rock in the tank ready to take on any waste and the new tank, which you started out with base rock, can't at the moment process any waste which is the reason for the diatoms, algae etc.

Just a thought for starters

 

[brady816]

Thanks krish check your pm

 

[Krish]

No problem Brady