Paul B
NJRC Member
It's a shame when new hobbiests first start up a tank and see a little cyano, hair algae or diatoms they panic and come on these forums for advice and almost always are hit with a plethora of suggestions as to what chemicals or animals they should add to remedy something that is a natural, normal process that almost all tanks go through especially if the tank was started with ASW and dry rock.
My main suggestion is first of all to not start a tank using all dry, dead dry rock. You are spending a lot of money on the tank, filters, ASW, rock, skimmers, dosers, lights, chemicals, test kits and some unfortunately, divorce lawyers. (not me).
Get all the live rock you can afford.
No matter what you do at first, the most important thing we never think about is bacteria and it's the bacteria that run our tanks. They control the algae, cyano, diatoms and general health.
All of the tanks we set up using dry rock and asw will have all sorts of problems and it isn't our fault. Well, if we fill the tank with orange juice and cat litter it may be our fault but a tank, any tank takes time to grow enough of the correct bacteria to settle down and do what it is supposed to do.
If we add chemicals like "Red Slime Remover" Prizapro, copper, antibiotics, "or anything that is not sea water or food we short circuit the process and then are forced to get out of the hobby (after we pay those lawyers, not me) and get a job in Home Depot selling plungers and weed killer.
I have no experience using bottled bacteria so I can't speak of that. Maybe it's the best thing since "aglets". (Those little plastic things on the ends of shoelaces. ) I don't know as we didn't have that stuff when I started at the the same time we invented rocks. We added some dead stuff like a clam or shrimp (some of us added a small, cheap fish. Ok stop squinting up your eyes, we all did that. and many times those silly damsels lived for 10 years and those things can cause us to get out of the hobby)
If you add some dead thing to a tank that has rocks in it but no bacteria, in no time the water will get cloudy and stink a little. You may think your two year old poured your "Half and Half" or "Liquid Plumber" in the tank but she "probably" didn't. If the water gets like that, thats good. But stinky. Go out to dinner and invite yourself to a friends house for a few days. When you come back and the tank is clear, add some more dead stuff.
Then find a different friend to visit because that one won't be speaking to you especially if your dog ruined their carpet.
Anyway, now, after it clears you are ready to add a small fish. Not a Moorish Idol, Lipstick Tang or 3' Moray Eel, maybe a bleeny. You can also add a few crabs. You will have to feed these things and I would feed more than those small critters need because that fish doesn't hardly need food, but the bacteria which is the biggest consumer of things are growing and hungry. They get hungrier every day and we need them to grow and cover everything in the tank.
Those bacteria join gangs and there are many "gangs" of bacteria. Some are good for us and help us by converting, for free, waste products such as ammonia that fish excrete and convert to things we like such as "Sprite and Dr Pepper". But some of those bacteria are lazy and don't do anything we like. Some of them form Cyano which is not really bad but if you are older than about 65 and you saw the movie "The Blob" thats what it looks like and we don't like that.
Some other bacteria form other things like Hydrogen Sulfide, which is also natural and everywhere in the sea, but it will kill everything in our tanks even a Great White Shark which most of us don't want in our tank anyway.
Some bacteria cause disease but those bacteria, if you do this correctly will also not harm anything because our goal is to get our fish in such a state of health that they laugh at disease bacteria like mine do. Mine are laughing now and it is annoying.
Eventually, the bacteria we like will become dominant and help our tanks through the maturation process where the chemical reactions take place naturally without causing to much cyano, hair algae or diatoms, but some of that is normal as the bacteria are still discussing which gang to join and which ones are stronger.
This all may tank a year no matter what your test kit from Walmart that you got on sale for $15.99 tells you. You may think your tank is "cycled" because your ammonia tests zero and your nitrate is 160. It is not cycled and "cycling" to me is a silly criteria. Cycled by a test kit just means that you have enough of the correct bacteria to convert that small amount of ammonia or dead shrimp but it doesn't mean you can add a $400.00 SPS coral with 17- 5" tangs.
We also need to remember that we have viruses, funguses and parasites in there competing and viruses attack bacteria and parasites and bacteria also attack parasites so there is always a war going on and if we could see this, it would be awesome and I am surprised Steven Spielberg never made a movie showing this. 
See the Cyano under this beautiful Red Waspfish?
My main suggestion is first of all to not start a tank using all dry, dead dry rock. You are spending a lot of money on the tank, filters, ASW, rock, skimmers, dosers, lights, chemicals, test kits and some unfortunately, divorce lawyers. (not me).
Get all the live rock you can afford.
No matter what you do at first, the most important thing we never think about is bacteria and it's the bacteria that run our tanks. They control the algae, cyano, diatoms and general health.
All of the tanks we set up using dry rock and asw will have all sorts of problems and it isn't our fault. Well, if we fill the tank with orange juice and cat litter it may be our fault but a tank, any tank takes time to grow enough of the correct bacteria to settle down and do what it is supposed to do.
If we add chemicals like "Red Slime Remover" Prizapro, copper, antibiotics, "or anything that is not sea water or food we short circuit the process and then are forced to get out of the hobby (after we pay those lawyers, not me) and get a job in Home Depot selling plungers and weed killer.
I have no experience using bottled bacteria so I can't speak of that. Maybe it's the best thing since "aglets". (Those little plastic things on the ends of shoelaces. ) I don't know as we didn't have that stuff when I started at the the same time we invented rocks. We added some dead stuff like a clam or shrimp (some of us added a small, cheap fish. Ok stop squinting up your eyes, we all did that. and many times those silly damsels lived for 10 years and those things can cause us to get out of the hobby)
If you add some dead thing to a tank that has rocks in it but no bacteria, in no time the water will get cloudy and stink a little. You may think your two year old poured your "Half and Half" or "Liquid Plumber" in the tank but she "probably" didn't. If the water gets like that, thats good. But stinky. Go out to dinner and invite yourself to a friends house for a few days. When you come back and the tank is clear, add some more dead stuff.
Then find a different friend to visit because that one won't be speaking to you especially if your dog ruined their carpet.
Anyway, now, after it clears you are ready to add a small fish. Not a Moorish Idol, Lipstick Tang or 3' Moray Eel, maybe a bleeny. You can also add a few crabs. You will have to feed these things and I would feed more than those small critters need because that fish doesn't hardly need food, but the bacteria which is the biggest consumer of things are growing and hungry. They get hungrier every day and we need them to grow and cover everything in the tank.
Those bacteria join gangs and there are many "gangs" of bacteria. Some are good for us and help us by converting, for free, waste products such as ammonia that fish excrete and convert to things we like such as "Sprite and Dr Pepper". But some of those bacteria are lazy and don't do anything we like. Some of them form Cyano which is not really bad but if you are older than about 65 and you saw the movie "The Blob" thats what it looks like and we don't like that.
Some other bacteria form other things like Hydrogen Sulfide, which is also natural and everywhere in the sea, but it will kill everything in our tanks even a Great White Shark which most of us don't want in our tank anyway.
Some bacteria cause disease but those bacteria, if you do this correctly will also not harm anything because our goal is to get our fish in such a state of health that they laugh at disease bacteria like mine do. Mine are laughing now and it is annoying.
Eventually, the bacteria we like will become dominant and help our tanks through the maturation process where the chemical reactions take place naturally without causing to much cyano, hair algae or diatoms, but some of that is normal as the bacteria are still discussing which gang to join and which ones are stronger.
This all may tank a year no matter what your test kit from Walmart that you got on sale for $15.99 tells you. You may think your tank is "cycled" because your ammonia tests zero and your nitrate is 160. It is not cycled and "cycling" to me is a silly criteria. Cycled by a test kit just means that you have enough of the correct bacteria to convert that small amount of ammonia or dead shrimp but it doesn't mean you can add a $400.00 SPS coral with 17- 5" tangs.
We also need to remember that we have viruses, funguses and parasites in there competing and viruses attack bacteria and parasites and bacteria also attack parasites so there is always a war going on and if we could see this, it would be awesome and I am surprised Steven Spielberg never made a movie showing this.
See the Cyano under this beautiful Red Waspfish?
