Rock Turning Brown

[TomStill]

I am in the process of cycling my tank. I have had the rock in the tank for almost 2 weeks now. I have recently noticed that alot of the rock is turning brown. Is this normal? Is this just die off? I also wonder if i am running my lights too long. My rock work is comprised of mostly live rock that I bought and it dried out before I set up my tank. There are a few pieces of live rock that was given to me by wayne to help cycle my tank. It seems that the rock that wayne gave me is the one that is turning brown, and it is also the rock that is closest to the top.

Any Ideas or suggestions on what this is or what to do. My ammonia readings are 0 and have been for 2 weeks and I hvae no nitrites. My ph is 8.2 also.

thanks,

Jon

[Angela Short]

Its probably a diatom bloom which is normal in a cycle at this point :).

[andywe]

Sounds normal to me. You'll go through brown, then green, maybe some red..it takes time. Just let it cycle. You do not need to run your lights for lengthy times..6-8 hours if you have no crals should be good if they are powerful lights.

[TomStill]

yeah i am running 4 T5 HO lights, I am adding another 2 bulbs soon. Im glad its normal, however my tank has not had any ammonia spikes or anything, and it has been 2 weeks. I thought I would have seen one by now.

[NeveSSL]

Yep. Normal.

This is something that every single tank goes through regardless of how much you try to get it not to! :)

Brandon

[shanealanbeaty]

Diatom bloom. If you can't stand the aesthetics of the rock, you can always take out the rock, scrub lightly with a tooth brush, and rinse it under fresh water breifly. You might loose some copepods from doing this though.

[NeveSSL]

Not to be argumentative with shanealanbeaty, but DO NOT rinse with fresh water. Not only will you lose copepods, you'll kill anything else in the rocks, most notably bacteria, thus effectively defeating your cycle.

Rinse it in saltwater. The easiest thing to do is just do a water change and rinse the rocks in the old water before you pour it out.

Brandon

[TomStill]

i understand the part about a water change, but is it really necessary to take the rocks out and rinse them. If this is a cycle, shouldnt it go away on its own when the parameters are right?

[shanealanbeaty]

Brandon is ABSOLUTELY correct, you will lose alot of beneficial bacteria, but I have made the mistake of putting someone else's rock in my well established reef tank before. A couple of weeks later, the new rocks were covered with nasty, unsightly hair algae . I got the rocks out, removed the algae with a brush and rinsed breifly under water, and haven't had ANY hair algae since. Bacteria reproduction is exponentially explosive, in a tank cycling 2 weeks, the loss from rinsing would be minimal at best.

[TomStill]

do you think that the diatom bloom is a result of using someone elses LR, or do you think that it is a product of the tank cycling?

[shanealanbeaty]

Diatom blooms are normal phase of a maturing tank. One thing that can increase the severity of the bloom is using tap water. Other than that I wouldn't be to worried about it. It just takes some time to thin out. I just said what I did in case you just can not stand the brown look.

[TomStill]

when I set up my tank, we used tap water. I was told that that was ok since I would be doing multiple water changes and would be using RO/DI water when doing water changes. I am recieving my RODI unit today.

[poolkeeper1]

The idea that you fill a tank with tap water to then try and eliminate all the Phosphate that you put in the tank by doing RODI water changes is absurd! Being too in a rush to fill your tank with bad water is a sign of Impatiences that will catch up to you in this hobby in a hurry!

[TomStill]

Well, Bill I understand that impatience in a hobby usually leads to no good, however in my case it wasnt impatience, it was advise from a fellow reef keeper. I am new to the hobby and am just trying to learn as much as I can. I have my RODI unit now, and that is all that I intend to use. I have also tested my tank for phosphates and the test didnt show any.

[Angela Short]

Bill, Bill, Bill... I filled mine with tap water and am changing with RO BUT My Phospates are kinda out of control ;). But you know that I filled with tap since you helped hold the water hose :lol:

Needless to say it will take lots of RO water changes to get hte P04 you put in from the tap water down to a very low level but can be done. Problem is all the food and things we feed our tank tends to put it right back in especially if we feed heavy at all so keep feeding down to a minimum and keep your fish load real light till you get lots of water changes with good water under your belt ;).
My RO is only producing about 30 gallons per day so I just couldn't wait for it to make 370 gallons of water!! My corals are suffering from the high P04 and I am having a diatom bloom again but it will level out in time. Especially if you run a fuge to help absorbe the phoshates.
Diatom blooms are a fact though even with a good start up water so just live with it till it goes away. Its a good idea to take a turkey baster or small power head and blow all the crud out of the rocks before a water change but I wouldn't take the rocks out to rinse them.

[Angela Short]

If you filled with tap and your test shows 0 P04 the test is bad unless you have a HUGE fuge with tons of cheato I would think. But the p04 tests are the harder ones to get acurate I have always read FWIW.

[fallinapart]

In a perfect world, starting out with rodi water would be good, but I suspect a big percent of reefers start with tap water. I know I did when I did my 90g.

But Bill, you are right, that does bring on a bigger diatom bloom, but you will always get that to some degree even with using rodi water. Plus doing regular frequent water changes will help.

[poolkeeper1]

Angela Angela Angela I also told that you should not do that if you remember. I would not force anyone to do other than what they want to do to their tank. But that don't mean I agree with it. When I filled my 185 I trucked 200 gal RODI from the critter with mt pickup, It was a pain but I did it and never had a real bad Algae problem, Knock on wood or high phosphates. I am not saying you can't dilute out the problem, I'm saying you could have prevented it in the first place thats all. You wouldn't pour gasoline on a fire your trying to put out would you?

[andywe]

Tom,

All the people who responded are very smart. So here is my take hehe.

Leave the rock be. Take your time. Throw cleaners into the tank. A good mix will eat away at the various forms of Algea you will get. My 180 was set up from someone else's LR and I got the Green hair algae, threw my cleaners in and the hair algae was quickly taken care of. Then I got the browns jsut like you. After a few weeks, it too dissipated. Then I got the light greens. It is slowly being run out by Coraline and a nice purple is taking place.

And just for the record, my tank was set up using tap water (200 gallons worth) January 19th right after the swap. I have many happy fishes and corals. My phosphates have gone way down to almost 0 now. I ran a Phos pad for a week to help a little. There is bacteria that will remove phosphate but it takes time to develop.

If I recall, Poolkeepr(Bill) adds a shot of Vodka to the tank as it helps this bacteria propagate by feeding on the residual sugar left from the fermentation process. Being an EX beer brewer, it is very plausible.

SO be patient and let it sit. Show tanks don't come to life overnight. This is actually one of the fun-nest times in the hobby. You grow your tank, not just stock it :-)

[NeveSSL]

Mine was initially setup with tap, too. :)

To follow up with what andywe was saying about patience. One of my favorite quotes is "Nothing good happens quickly in reefing", and man is it true!

I also agree you can leave your rocks in if you want. You don't have to scrub them unless you just want to. :) Either way, its normal.

Brandon

[TomStill]

Thanks guys for your help! On another note, if anyone wants to chime in on the Vodka thing, that seems like a cool tip if it works! I too am am home brewer and it makes sense to me.

[Angela Short]

You know I totally love you Bill and think your advise is worthless.... Oh I mean INVALUABLE :)! Hope you didn't take me as condecending to your comment ;).
I am just messing with ya, I have learned a lot from you and totally agree RO is the BEST way but just so darn hard for most. I can only see me trucking around a few hundred gallons...not.....

but you did tell me I should do just that! I am suffering from all the things mentioned.. bad diatom cycles and now its all green but will hopefull all get nice and purple with good water params and plenty of good RO/DI water changes.

Also the vodka thing Bill does is worth looking into. I totally can swear his tank is on steroids! He held most all my corals while I built the 270 and the stuff hits his water and starts sprouting all new colors and growth is amazing. But he is totally on top of all his params and Keeps his Calc in very stable readings unlike me :(. But the vodka thing is totally plausable from what I understand how it works. I am gonna try it as soon as I stop draining my bottle of absolute the night I get it... Hucup!! ** Hicup**

[TomStill]

Bill,

Seems there is some interest in your vodka technique. Would you mind expounding a bit on this. Im sure everyone would love to hear the reasons behind feeding your tank vodka other than making your fish swim crooked.
Thanks.

[poolkeeper1]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php


OK start reading when you have finished and have a general understanding of it's purpose I will be more than glad to help with your questions!

[TomStill]

That is a great article, I think I might try that once I get my skimmer running well. I havent needed to run it yet in the young stage of my aquarium. but it is really necessary when vodka dosing.

[poolkeeper1]

Why do you think that a skimmer Isn't necessary in the early stages of your tank? Any thing that dies off from your live-rock or by products of your cycle can be removed by your skimmer if it were running!! I would suggest that you get it running sooner rather than later, IMO it the most valuable piece of equipment there is in the hobby. May I suggest some reading on Foam Fr actioning would be a good read for you to fully understand the process.

[NeveSSL]

Sweet... looks like I have another reason for getting an Octopus recirc. :D

Brandon