Tank Water Turned Black

[jennmac415]

In looking at the link to the skimmer I'm thinking that this guy is not in the US, but possibly in Australia??? So ordering from BRS or Marine Depot wouldn't be very feasible for him. I'm thinking the "store brand" salt must be a generic brand that we aren't familiar with here in the us, but not necessarily bad. I do think that doing more reading and research before completely starting over might be a good thing for original poster to do.

[jennmac415]

Sry didn't mean to copy and post original post again

[DanReedRogers]

Alight, Thanks for all the responses guys, I will do a big water change today, at one last attempt to save the tank. Would it be possible to save the live rock? Im in Australia, yeah.

and as for the toxic gas... I have been sleeping in the same room as it.....

Cheers. Dan.

[tmz]

Ro/di is certainly worth having but would not have made a difference with decaying live rock in anoxic salt water.Many folks run tanks without ro/di though it's safer to use it.

Air out the room. Dump the water .

Rinse the rock thoroughly with salt water,brush off any decaying material you see. Wear gloves. Cure it in circulating water for few weeks. Monitor ammonia and change the water if it gets high ,say more than 2. Keep the water aerated with power head at the surface and/or an air stone. Sulfate reducing bacteria need oxygen free water to live. Ammonia oxidizers and other beneficial players in the nitrogen cycle use and/or need oxygen.

A more drastic set of measures involves bleaching the rock ,followed by and acid bath. I'd just clean it up and put it in new salt water and keep it aerated.

H2S, hydrogen sulfide oxidizes eventually. It should be ok but might take a while .

This is a link to Wikipedia's site on H2S. Section 6 deals with toxicity including signs and symptoms of poisoning:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_sulfide#Toxicity

[gone fishin]

My thought for the egg smell was you said you had a very deep sand bed. I was curious if the LFS scooped out the sand from one of their tanks. Some good advice given. I think I might look for another LFS if you have that option. Good luck.

[slief]

Originally Posted by gone fishin

My thought for the egg smell was you said you had a very deep sand bed.

Live rock has areas with a complete or near absence of o2 much the same as with a DSB. As such, you can have the same kind of issues and smell from live rock as you would in a DSB if you disturb it. Especially in the event of a massive die off within the live rock.

[DanReedRogers]

Ah, No the Sand wasn't scooped out of their tanks, it was new. As far as cleaning the rock goes just water in a bucket and scrub the rock...?

Someone said earlier to get a filter, I have a filter, Should i put that in the tank?

Cheers.Dan.

[whiteshark]

What kind of filter is it that you have?

[slief]

Originally Posted by DanReedRogers

Ah, No the Sand wasn't scooped out of their tanks, it was new. As far as cleaning the rock goes just water in a bucket and scrub the rock...?

Someone said earlier to get a filter, I have a filter, Should i put that in the tank?

Cheers.Dan.

Live rock is typically cured in a dedicated container with circulating salt water and a good protein skimmer. It typically takes 2 weeks or more for the rocks to cure.

You can scrub the rocks if you choose with a scrub brush & salt water but you should definitely set the rocks up in a separate container with salt water and cure them properly. You don't want to cure rocks in your display tank which is essentially what you are doing now. You should change out as much water as needed regularly if the water smells. During this time, you could cycle your tank or at least begin the cycle process with new water. Once the rock is done curing, you could place it back in your tank while the cycle finishes or just wait out the cycle and then place the rock back in the display. The latter would be the best choice. Live rock will typically slough of decaying matter during the curing process and heavy circulation helps to suspend the decay so the protein skimmer can do it's job in removing it from the water column. Other than a decent protein skimmer, a filter is pretty much useless for curing live rock IMO.

[jennmac415]

Make sure you scrub it in saltwater... Otherwise you will kill off everything left on it even more and it won't even be live rock anymore.

[DanReedRogers]

Yeah Cool, I have removed maybe around 50-60% percent of the water, it is still blackish, but It doesn't smell like rotten egg anymore. Would you suggest taking it all out?.

With the Curing of the rock, the shop did say it was cured but... Hmmm. So I just get a Container fill it with saltwater and let it cure?

[gone fishin]

Originally Posted by slief

Live rock has areas with a complete or near absence of o2 much the same as with a DSB. As such, you can have the same kind of issues and smell from live rock as you would in a DSB if you disturb it. Especially in the event of a massive die off within the live rock.

Thanks for the check I got focused on the DSB.

[gone fishin]

I think I would change it until I got back to "normal" looking water and go from there. Hopefully it was just an initial die off event. It is in the tank now let it cycle. Just my thoughts.

[slief]

Originally Posted by DanReedRogers

Yeah Cool, I have removed maybe around 50-60% percent of the water, it is still blackish, but It doesn't smell like rotten egg anymore. Would you suggest taking it all out?.

With the Curing of the rock, the shop did say it was cured but... Hmmm. So I just get a Container fill it with saltwater and let it cure?

The shop either lied or you or they likely did something to cause a massive die off.

Yes, to cure live rock, place it in a large container with salt water. Be sure to have a good circulation pump in the container and a good protein skimmer. You need to export the waste from the die off and curing process so it isn't retained in the rocks or cause further die off within the live rock. You need the skimmer and circulation not only for export of the organics but also to insure you have adequate o2 levels otherwise any aerobic life in the rocks will die.

That brings up another thought.. If your display tank doesn't have adequate o2 levels, this can cause a massive die off from the rocks too. Since you are new to the hobby, I question whether you have enough dissolved o2 in your tank. Good surface agitation is very important as can be a properly setup and functioning protein skimmer as both the surface agitation and the skimmer generate needed dissolved o2. If your tank doesn't have an overflow leading to a sump, sufficient levels of dissolved o2 can be impossible to maintain without the surface agitation and or a good skimmer.

[Teenreefer15]

start over.

[DanReedRogers]

Alright, So all I have for circulation is just that one stream pump. It is on the max setting which is 800 Gallons Per Hour. However I did notice a white layer on the top of the water. I assume this means that I didn't have proper circulation?

[slief]

Originally Posted by DanReedRogers

Alright, So all I have for circulation is just that one stream pump. It is on the max setting which is 800 Gallons Per Hour. However I did notice a white layer on the top of the water. I assume this means that I didn't have proper circulation?

The white layer on top of the water is the die off from the rocks. Usually when live rocks cure, they slough off white stuff on the rocks surface. That is why high flow is critical when you cure live rock. It's accumulating on the surface of the water because I'm guessing you don't have an overflow leading to a sump. Thus you have no means of surface skimming. Surface skimming is different than a protein skimmer. Protein skimmer exports dissolved solids from the water where as surface skimming removes stuff from the waters surface. My guess is also that you have very poor surface agitation which lead to more organics accumulating at the surface. All of which are one of the reasons why overflows and sumps with the protein skimmers instead of HOB skimmers are preferable.

[DanReedRogers]

One last question. Will I need a heater in there?

Cheers.

[slief]

Originally Posted by DanReedRogers

One last question. Will I need a heater in there?

Cheers.

It doesn't hurt. You won't loose any life in the live rock due cold temps if you have a heater. Normally the answer would be a resounding yes dependant on your local temps. At this stage though, I'm not sure how much difference it will make anyway. I think most life has already been lost on those rocks based on the pictures, smell etc. Then again, the heater may help acclerate the decomposition of the dead stuff.

[Kenmx10]

i wonder if there could have been a sea hair in the rocks that was undetected and died?

[pktech]

Originally Posted by nbyron74

start over.

I agree - I wouldn't trust anything in there.

[SaltieG]

Yep start over there is definitely something not right there and that rock will probably just cause you more issues down the line. I had this happen after a tank transfer where the water got really dark and murky and smelled horrible. Nothing good came out of that and I threw it all out and started over.

[DanReedRogers]

Yeah right, I am going to take my water into the shop and get it tested and see what they say, Hopefully the rock will cure.. Fingers crossed

Cheers. Dan

[trae]

DanReedRogers, I don't think it is your rock. I lived in a place where my RoDi could only get the water to 35-45 PPM. I had dark brown water off and on for a month after it cleared. I had no intentions of starting over with 240 gallons of water so after the brown algae, I lived with a green hair algae bloom from hell for six months before I emptied the tank. Tank clear and bacteria eaters seemed to feed it.

[pktech]

Originally Posted by DanReedRogers

Yeah right, I am going to take my water into the shop and get it tested and see what they say, Hopefully the rock will cure.. Fingers crossed

Cheers. Dan

Just curious why you're interested in holding on to that water. Are you cramped for space? not being a wise guy. Could you get a trash can & cure it in there & address your tank without dealing heavily with that the rock as well? Good luck in anything you do!