Just got off the phone with my LFS. I had told them that i was 3.5 weeks into my cycle, and have had diatom algae for the past 1.5 weeks. I tested my water last night and had undetectable amounts of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. pH, alkalinity, and salinity are all normal. They told me that at 3.5 weeks, its a likelyhood that ammonia hasn't even spiked yet. My question is, is that I was under the assumption that once you saw diatom algea during your cycle, it was an indicator that you were into the "nitrate" cycle of the nitrogen cycle. So my LFS is telling me that I probably haven't even developed my ammonia spike yet? I'm very confused, and would appreciate some light on this issue
Any answers or advice, always appreciated
Phayes