Protein Skimmer

About a day or 2 after I added the live sand and live rock to my tank I noticed the water in the skimmer was a tan almond like color but at my LFS the water in the protein skimmer is a greenish brown color is this tan color normal at first.  Also, how often do you suggest I do water changes while my tank is cycling. One more question. I added about 50lbs of partially cured rock and about 50lbs of cured rock to my tank. Before I added the rock the ammonia nitrate and nitrite were all zero. 2 days after I added this my ammonia was at .2ppm, my nitrite was at almost zero and my nitrate was zero, and 4 days after my ammonia was .4ppm and my nitrite was about .2ppm and my ammonia was still zero. Do you think that 50lbs of partially cured rock will be enough to cycle my tank or should I add a cocktail shrimp or 2. Thanks

 

Yes that colour is normal in a new system.
As for the water changes IMO you should not do any water changes in a cycling tank. The reason being you would be removing the Ammonia and nitrites from the water that are the food for the Bactria that you are trying to grow in your LR and LS

J

 

I would add a shrimp for sure. I would use Craig's trick of putting it in a nylon so that when it gets really stinky it's easy to remove.
I would then give it about 4 days before a test. You should see a jump in Ammonia by then

J

 

I will do that.  When I got home last night I noticed that some of the LR, actually now that I think about it I seems to be pretty much confined to the branch like pieces of LR, had turned a golden yellow orange color.  Is that bad or just the start of my first algae bloom.  I also noticed a VERY FAINT, I mean only noticable if you have your nose up to the glass, similar golden colored spots on the glass is this also part of an algae bloom.

 

do you think I should start using an algae magnet for the glass or should I wait til the tank finishes cycling

 

I think I answered my own question about the brown spots, its diatom algae and it means my cycle is almost over.  I found this web site w/ a nice timeline.