Curing rocks gone wrong?

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

Man I hope I am not double posting. I had a post written and not sure what I did. Mods, I did please delete the other. I started curing these rocks back in July. About 4 months ago I read and also someone on here said I should apply light to help get bacteria growing. I do the shrimp thing, etc. It's been about 6 weeks since I checked on them. Today I noticed the rocks look like this. Covered in a green slime. The salinity was 1.038. I got it down to 1.025. I kee them at 80 degrees. I wanted to use some this weekend as I want to move my 6g into a 16g biocube. However, I don't think I can use them looking like this. Should I do a 30 day blackout?

 

[JNalley]

I am not sure where you got the impression that the bacteria need light to process and create the nitrogen cycle. Biomedia has been relegated to sumps for ages, and typically sumps are dark zones. So I am pretty sure them needing light is a big myth, someone else can correct me if I happen to be wrong, I'd be thrilled to read that. Secondly, a blackout will certainly work to get rid of the algae, but you will still be stuck with a bunch of nitrates and phosphates in the water column, some of which the rocks have likely leeched out of the water and stored. When you cycle rock, generally, you want to perform water changes every so often so you're removing nutrients and replacing with clean water.

All that being said, you could use the rock immediately as long as you have a decent sized cleanup crew that will devour all that algae. You'll just have to put up with a dirty looking tank for a little bit. Everything you want to have going on in the rocks (Ammonia -> Nitrite, Nitrite -> Nitrate, and even Nitrate -> Nitrogen) is definitely going on by the looks of things. So it's really up to you at this point.

 

[KrisReef]

I hope that I didn’t tell you to turn the lights on but if it was me I am sorry about that. I would take them out of the water and scrape them off with a brush and then rinse them off before I used them. Otherwise, you are probably good to go.

Also-
I would check the phosphate levels in the barrel and use lanthanum chloride in the barrel if the phosphate is high. Keep using phosphate remover until the levels drop towards zero. Once zero I would let it sit for a day and remeasure P to make sure that the rock is not releasing a pile of P over time. GL

 

[Readywriter]

Id scrub and rinse them, scrub the container and do a 100% water change before putting them back in and Id wait a week to see what happens before thinking about putting them in a tank.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I am not sure where you got the impression that the bacteria need light to process and create the nitrogen cycle. Biomedia has been relegated to sumps for ages, and typically sumps are dark zones. So I am pretty sure them needing light is a big myth, someone else can correct me if I happen to be wrong, I'd be thrilled to read that. Secondly, a blackout will certainly work to get rid of the algae, but you will still be stuck with a bunch of nitrates and phosphates in the water column, some of which the rocks have likely leeched out of the water and stored. When you cycle rock, generally, you want to perform water changes every so often so you're removing nutrients and replacing with clean water.

All that being said, you could use the rock immediately as long as you have a decent sized cleanup crew that will devour all that algae. You'll just have to put up with a dirty looking tank for a little bit. Everything you want to have going on in the rocks (Ammonia -> Nitrite, Nitrite -> Nitrate, and even Nitrate -> Nitrogen) is definitely going on by the looks of things. So it's really up to you at this point.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I am not sure where you got the impression that the bacteria need light to process and create the nitrogen cycle. Biomedia has been relegated to sumps for ages, and typically sumps are dark zones. So I am pretty sure them needing light is a big myth, someone else can correct me if I happen to be wrong, I'd be thrilled to read that. Secondly, a blackout will certainly work to get rid of the algae, but you will still be stuck with a bunch of nitrates and phosphates in the water column, some of which the rocks have likely leeched out of the water and stored. When you cycle rock, generally, you want to perform water changes every so often so you're removing nutrients and replacing with clean water.

All that being said, you could use the rock immediately as long as you have a decent sized cleanup crew that will devour all that algae. You'll just have to put up with a dirty looking tank for a little bit. Everything you want to have going on in the rocks (Ammonia -> Nitrite, Nitrite -> Nitrate, and even Nitrate -> Nitrogen) is definitely going on by the looks of things. So it's really up to you at this point.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/“...-and-established-rock….1019592/#post-11934719

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I hope that I didn’t tell you to turn the lights on but if it was me I am sorry about that. I would take them out of the water and scrape them off with a brush and then rinse them off before I used them. Otherwise, you are probably good to go.

Also-
I would check the phosphate levels in the barrel and use lanthanum chloride in the barrel if the phosphate is high. Keep using phosphate remover until the levels drop towards zero. Once zero I would let it sit for a day and remeasure P to make sure that the rock is not releasing a pile of P over time. GL

Hey @KrisReef , no you are the one that told me to use LC to get the PO4 down. Here is the thread https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/“...-and-established-rock….1019592/#post-11934719

 

[JNalley]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/“...-and-established-rock….1019592/#post-11934719

I mean, he wasn't wrong, he was telling you how to grow "other things" besides the bacteria on the rocks. Hair algae, slime algae, etc falls into categories of other things :-D

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I mean, he wasn't wrong, he was telling you how to grow "other things" besides the bacteria on the rocks. Hair algae, slime algae, etc falls into categories of other things :-D

I didn't say he was wrong. There is zero hair algae in there. It is all slime and film. I just went and pulled a few. If I swish them around it falls of and floats around. It's like 1/8th inch Jell-O. I kinda want to put some on a a paint stick and fling it at my neighbor.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I mean, he wasn't wrong, he was telling you how to grow "other things" besides the bacteria on the rocks. Hair algae falls into categories of other things :-D

I was pointing out the LC vs. water changes.

 

[Readywriter]

I didn't say he was wrong. There is zero hair algae in there. It is all slime and film. I just went and pulled a few. If I swish them around it falls of and floats around. It's like 1/8th inch Jell-O. I kinda want to put some on a a paint stick and fling it at my neighbor.

Yea thats why I said id scrub it and wc and wait a week. Kinda reminds me of what youd find in a stagnant tidepool.

 

[JNalley]

I was pointing out the LC vs. water changes.

Ahh, gotcha.

I didn't say he was wrong. There is zero hair algae in there. It is all slime and film. I just went and pulled a few. If I swish them around it falls of and floats around. It's like 1/8th inch Jell-O. I kinda want to put some on a a paint stick and fling it at my neighbor.

right, slime/film (I mentioned that after hair), which is what you get in an ATS before turf starts to form. It's completely safe, it is definitely like a stagnant tidepool as doc mentioned. You can brush it off and use immediately, some CUC also eat it, you can do a black out, removal + water change, wait. It's all up to you. If the goal was to cycle it so you could use it this weekend, it is safe to use, and has what you need (Beneficial Nitrifying and Denitrifying bacteria).

 

[KrisReef]

I didn't say he was wrong. There is zero hair algae in there. It is all slime and film. I just went and pulled a few. If I swish them around it falls of and floats around. It's like 1/8th inch Jell-O. I kinda want to put some on a a paint stick and fling it at my neighbor.

Love thy neighbor as thy self?
Just rinse it off. I put rocks in buckets with lids outside and they always get slippery with algae ( the sunlight seems to penetrate through white plastic buckets). I rinse them off and drop them in and let the fish eat the stuff, never flinging fish food on my neighbors. My fish love me for it.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Do you have a powerhead in with the rocks or just stagnant water? A powerhead should stop that slime from building up.

 

[twentyleagues]

I have turned a 100g rubbermade full of marco rock into a rubbermade full of seasoned live rock with coralline growing. Couple things you need flow lots of it, fresh water top off, light of the correct spectrum, heat when things are stable a coralline seed. If you dont have these things it turns out like this. Gotta treat it like a reef tank. You dont have to go crazy on testing but you do need to do some maintenance, top off, wc, feed.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

Do you have a powerhead in with the rocks or just stagnant water? A powerhead should stop that slime from building up.

2 of them. The slime wrapped around one and slowed the water movement and the other sucked in slime and slowed down.