Brown spots on rock in new tank

Lou Raffael

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Hi, I've been running my tank for about a week with dry rock that I had sit in RO water for about two months prior to set up. Yesterday I poured in some bacteria and a pinch of ammonia to get the cycle going, today I noticed little brown spots on all of the rocks and in the sand. I googled it and it says it could be brown algae but all of the article are about freshwater aquariums and says it because of too little light. I've got two Radion XR15's on all day at I believe close to 100%. It also says too little oxygen, my skimmer is running full power but not sure it's getting a ton of oxygen in the tank. Is this normal? Should I change something/add more oxygen somehow?

Thank you for your help
 
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Lou Raffael

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Lou Raffael

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How worried should I be, I just tried reading a very lengthy article that made my head spin. I'm going to google this more, is this common in new tanks and does anyone have an easy fix to this or is it much more involved?

Thanks again
 

reeferfoxx

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How worried should I be, I just tried reading a very lengthy article that made my head spin. I'm going to google this more, is this common in new tanks and does anyone have an easy fix to this or is it much more involved?

Thanks again
Your tank is cycling. Even after the nitrogen cycle you still have to establish the micro and macro fauna to create the ecosystem. Dry rock and plastic pumps and equipment supply the water column with an abundance of silicates. The way the biology removes these silicates are diatoms. Diatoms will feed off it till they disappear. After that your rock will leach a good amount of phosphates which sparks the cyanobacteria growth. After that cycle comes the hair algae. Hair algae is the first plant based life form that will grow and help oxygenate the water. This whole cycle is beneficial and shouldn't be messed with. Just maintain a 15-25% weekly water change and all should be good.

Also since you have dry rock, look into seeding micro fauna like copepods, amphipods, phytoplankton and zooplankton. Pods will help eat diatoms and plankton is also food for copepods and amphipods.
 
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Lou Raffael

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Thank you very much for the explanation. That's great info. So I should be doing 15%-25% water changes during the cycling process? Since I just added bacteria the other day I was going to add more every few days until I got the ammonia level down or finished the bottle. Should I wait until the ammonia goes down or just do water changes weekly and keep testing throughout? Thanks
 

reeferfoxx

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Thank you very much for the explanation. That's great info. So I should be doing 15%-25% water changes during the cycling process? Since I just added bacteria the other day I was going to add more every few days until I got the ammonia level down or finished the bottle. Should I wait until the ammonia goes down or just do water changes weekly and keep testing throughout? Thanks
Yes absolutely wait till ammonia and nitrites are at zeros. Once that happens, then start performing water changes. Usually when you start seeing diatoms though, the nitrogen cycle has finished. But definitely wait till all are zeros. :)
 

Brandonsegula

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Don't worry to much. It's natural. Something called diatoms. Once your bacterias get balanced out. You'll never see it again. You see Cyanobacteria eventually. Just wait it out. It's all the beginning process.
 

reeferfoxx

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Don't worry to much. It's natural. Something called diatoms. Once your bacterias get balanced out. You'll never see it again. You see Cyanobacteria eventually. Just wait it out. It's all the beginning process.
Bacteria has nothing to do with the consumption or eradication of diatoms. In fact diatoms only grow once bacteria is established. The only way to get rid of diatoms is removing silicates or waiting it out. Also diatom blooms can happen at anytime if said silicates are present. So even at a later date, if new equipment is added, a small bloom can occur. That isn't limited to equipment either. Adding new dry rock or sometimes several frag plugs can cause a diatom bloom.
 

Russ101

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Hi same question as Lou ... Mine is a newly cycled tank , and I've just started to notice little brown spots appearing on the dry rock I had boiled and cleaned thoroughly to rid of any nasties . I put 4 Blue / Green Chromis in 1 week ago , fish are doing great , but don't want to start treating the water just yet with only just putting the fish in you see , So do I do the same and wait it out and will they eventually go ?? I'll post a pic of it later today when I get home from work . But all info in the meantime is more than welcome .
 

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