dry rock

Hello just had a quick question on a new sw tank started. Is it normal for the tops of the dry rock in tank to get brown? Im sure its from the light on the tank. Should I not run the daylights? Looks like algae and not sure if its normal and should let it go. Check the water pararms and they look good.

 

yes, about as normal as ketchup on a hot dog. will get worse and then disappear. its apart of the cycle.

 

Sounds like a diatom bloom. Does it look like this ?

If so, these will die off once they have consumed all the silicates.

 

How old is the tank? Diatoms are usually the first and there will be more algea to come. Check the phosphates, if it gets to high you can run a phos ban or gfo reactor to help keep them down before they get out of control and you get worse than normal algea blooms.
like clarkkey594 said, diatoms go away after the silicates are used up, everybody goes through it.

 

Okay looks like the same. Mine started on thethe sand likewater yours but just recently put some coarse sand on top. Should I not run the daylights all day? Or let it run its cycle and do water change?

 

The tank is new a month old. I've got a api test kit but don't think it test for phosphates

 

The diatoms will run there coarse and go away about as fast as they showed up once all silicates are gone. There are things to you can do to help keep it down but I would more so worry about the phosphate levels so your not fighting a major problem down the road. Salifert test kits are the best on the market imo, depending what you want to do with your tank and how much money you want to invest depends on which kits to invest in. Make sure you only use DI water which will help make things easier for you down the road, get yourself a hand held tds meter, although we shoot for 0 a reading up to 3 is ok.

 

Cutting your light cycle down will help, with nothing in there right now you dont have to run the lights at all.

 

Threephase37... I'm cycling right now as well. Do I need to have my lights on? I have just live sand bought from the LFS. And a hefty scoop of live sand from a friends mature tank. There is a hermit crab and a snail and two very tiny bristleworms(all that I found at least so far)

 

Nope, you don't have to run your lights while cycling your tank, bacteria will grow without light. Fish don't need light either, it's when and if you want coraline, cheato, flame algea, ect to grow will you have to run your lights. I ran mine for a couple hrs a day during the cycle however I watched my phosphates and cut back on the light cycle till I got a gfo reactor up and running. High phosphates, over feeding, and old bulbs will lead to trouble down the road.