New tank and Noobie question

Hi I have just started a 29G FOWLR. I am just over a week into cycling it and i have a few questions.

I am cycling it with 2 yellow tale damsels. i could not afford much live rock so i have 25ish lbs of base rock and right now just a small 1lb piece of live rock to seed it. I just have a HOB filter right now

My ammonia spiked before the weekend but now has dropped down to 0.25ppm my no2 is over 1ppm and my no3 is in the 50-250ppm range. I am wondering if i should do a water change, i have read some places to do it weekly in the cycle and other places saying not to do it till its finished cycling.

also i came home today and noticed that i am getting a brown algae starting to grow on my rocks and substrate. my lights are on for 14 hours a day which i know is a long time but it lets both me and my wife enjoy the fish as we work split hours. from what i read the algae will go away with time once the cycle is over but i just wanted to make sure.


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right now i am also just running the basic light that came with my hood. i just for the nova extream lights today which i will be installing shortly.

thanks for any help you can give.

 

Just my thoughts.

 

i would not run the lights 14 hours a day...thats alot...i would get those damsels out once you start adding your other fish, they are pretty aggressive.

 

True about the damsels. Good hardy fish to cycle with, but aggressive fish to have. Espec. as they get older.

 

if you are still cycling i would not do a water change, that will only prolong the cycle.

what kind of water did you use for the initial set up?

 

I agree with Jay, I wouldn't do a water change, it will only prolong your cycle or risk prematurely cutting the cycle short. As for the damsels, I love yellow tail damsels, I've found that they really aren't that aggressive, especially compared to other fish. Hopefully yours work out.

 

+1 on everything said thus far
the brown algae is most likely diatoms, that use silicates available in new set ups from all the new plastics etc and once the silicates are all used up, they dissapear

they make come back in the future, if you add a new power head, pump etc

Steve

 

I used tap water which i ran through a carbon filter. at the time it was the best i could do.

my damsels have great personalty's one is a bit aggressive towards the smaller one when its time for food but thats it.

I was going to install my new lights tonight but they ended up being damaged

 

I also bought my self a power head for my tank, where is the best place to put this, i have a HOB on the left back area with the heater just to the side.

 

I would put it on the end of the tank &/or another aiming at the water for surface agitation.