Algae 5 Days After Filling Tank

[Mellis67]

Hello all... I am coming back to fish keeping after being away from it for several years... I recently got a 38 gallon tank and I filled it last Saturday...(5 Days ago)... One day after adding 3 pieces of Malaysian driftwood that was boiled for 1/2 hour each my tank became extremely cloudy. I have been adding Seachem Stability (2 caps a day) just because I had it not because I have any faith it in. I treated the new water with Seachem Prime to eliminate the chlorine and nasties from my tap water when it was filled. There are no fish and no live plants in the tank yet. It is located closer to a window than I like but I have plans to put a shade on the window... And now my plans have moved to doing it tomorrow morning... No artificial light has been provided yet. I see some green growing on some rocks I have and I've noticed fuzzy hairs on my artificial plants and driftwood as well as some other decorations. My equipment is as follows:
Aquaclear 70 (300 GPH)
Marineland Stealth Heater (250 Watts) set at 78 degrees F
Hagen Glo T5 HO Twin Tube Light (2 x 39 watts) 6700K but this has not been turned on yet.

I'd appreciate any suggestions... I was just waiting for everything to stabilize before cycling but now it looks like I need to figure out how to remove the algae before I cycle... Again I am new at this so I am not sure the best course of action. I don't want to use an algaecide because I plan on introducing live plants in this tank. Please Help!!!

 

[saltynay]

You will always get algae it is feeding off the nutrients in the water column and sunlight as there is no competition from plants just go through the cycle normally. Once your filter is cycled then you can dump 90% of the tanks water (10% needed to keep the filter wet and bacteria alive) and scrub the algae off all the rocks. If your putting live plants in the system then you may want to consider some sort of algae eating invert or fish. For the moment no worries.

 

[Mellis67]

Yes I plan on putting some live plants in... I have would eventually like to make it a fully planted tank but now I am going to mix artificial and live. I just don't want the algae to get out of control should I pick up some Algae eaters tomorrow or is it too soon? The Seachem Stability says I can add fish now with no worries. I'll get my water tested.. (have yet to decide which liquid kit to get...I've been told the API isn't that accurate)... If my ammonia is in check and I make water changes would it be ok so they can remove some of what's there? I've also heard that getting some plants will add some competition to the algae for nutrients and may reduce it... Would it be a good idea to add some plants now as well? Thanks...

 

[saltynay]

Too soon algae eaters will die. I personally cycle my tanks without ornaments for this reason. Just remove the ornaments the gravel ect. doesn't benefit cycling. After 5 days your stats are not accurate yet as virtually no bacteria will of been produced that eats ammonia which then in turn goes into to nitrate then another bacterial type turns it into nitrite (I always get my trites and trates mixed up but you get the idea) which is then removed through plants and water changes. The plants can go in no problem provided you have sufficient lighting for those plant species and ferts ect.