New Tank- Normal or Not?!

[Sylvester]

Hi all!

I’ve been in the hobby for some time now, but this new tank I’ve decided to go with the dry rock direction, and step away from my traditional live rock.

I started the fishless cycle September 2,2021 using the Brightwell system. It took a month and a half to complete and end results were great.

December 2021 like over night the rocks went from a normal brown film ugly stage to a encrusted green look and have covered pretty much all lightened surfaces of rock.

I kept thinking nothing of it and I let the process go , with having brown algae grow on glass very couple days and some brown uglys on the sand.

Anyway, it’s March now and the problem seems to be getting worse as the green is getting darker and no signs of Coraline algae in the works, except the normal flow pumps being covered in Coraline.
I’m also getting a strong odour of dirty algae coming from tank. It quite nasty smelling and I’ve never had this in prior tanks.
It smells as bad as the skimmer cup lol every time I wash the filter socks.

Am I missing something here or is this a dry rock route?
I also dropped in a couple of Acans and killed those in a matter of a week. They were happy till about the 5 th day in and retracted with heads falling off.

I’m also doing 60ml of Alk and 31ml of calcium with 1 torch and the dead acans

Levels

Salinity- 1.026
Ammonia -0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 0.15
Phosphate- 0.09
Cal-460
Alk- 8.6
Mag-1440

I use Tropic Marine- Pro Reef salt since day one. ESV Alk/Cal/Mag for dosing

Sump

Brightwell Bio brick x2
Brightwell bio plate x 1
Carbon media reactor
25 watt UV sterilizer
Reef Octopus Regal 150 skimmer
Ecotech M2
C02 scrubber

I have attached pics for comments and help with this !
Thank you in advance!
Sylvester

 

[Dom]

Did you cure the rock before use or was it placed directly in the tank?

Dry rock has a lot of organics so it must be cured first.

I'd ride it out.

 

[Sylvester]

Did you cure the rock before use or was it placed directly in the tank?

Dry rock has a lot of organics so it must be cured first.

I'd ride it out.

I did not cure it, just placed in a added water. I guess that is a vital step. I've always used live rock.

 

[Danroo]

Tank is just going through ugly stages, get a massive amount of clean up crew. Where your scans covered in algae?

 

[Dom]

I did not cure it, just placed in a added water. I guess that is a vital step. I've always used live rock.

Yes, live rock needs to be cycled prior to use. I made the same mistake once. Live and learn.

 

[Sylvester]

Yes, live rock needs to be cycled prior to use. I made the same mistake once. Live and learn.

I appreciate the quick response! I kinda leaned towards the curing stage as well.

 

[Sylvester]

Tank is just going through ugly stages, get a massive amount of clean up crew. Where your scans covered in algae?

I have red legged hermit, conch, turbo snails, sand sifting starfish, naussarius snail.The can was not covered as I moved it around and watched it carefully.

 

[Danroo]

That algae on sand bed is concerning with all that sand shifting clean up crew plus your nitrates and phosphates being 0, I’ve run my first tank with a dry rock and waited 6 months to add my first coral. The rocks looked like yours when I added it. It’s pretty stable at that point. I would assume having a dino problem.

 

[Sylvester]

That algae on sand bed is concerning with all that sand shifting clean up crew plus your nitrates and phosphates being 0, I’ve run my first tank with a dry rock and waited 6 months to add my first coral. The rocks looked like yours when I added it. It’s pretty stable at that point. I would assume having a dino problem.

Yes, agreed but my Nitrates and Phosphates aren't 0.
Nitrate - 0.15
Phoshates- 0.09

 

[Koh23]

Probably your no and po levels are higher, and captured in algae....

But not to worry, dry rock, if new, is clean and no organic in it, just let nature do its thing, very soon rock will start to getting its purple color....

Also, cuc, algae eaters, and reduce light on white/green/teal/whatever channel u have beside blues.....

Soft corals and some lps are good to go in this point..... If that is what interest you

 

[Sylvester]

Probably your no and po levels are higher, and captured in algae....

But not to worry, dry rock, if new, is clean and no organic in it, just let nature do its thing, very soon rock will start to getting its purple color....

Also, cuc, algae eaters, and reduce light on white/green/teal/whatever channel u have beside blues.....

Soft corals and some lps are good to go in this point..... If that is what interest you

Perfect
Thank you for the response. I will ride it out !

 

[Koh23]

I started with dry, new rock, and been in same situation, green algae, better said green rock and no coralline except for pumps....

Then, green slowly start do disappear, and rock started to getting purple coloration. Still have some spots of green, but nothing major....

Little green hair algae on back glass, but my fasciatus clean it regularly, coralline growth is everywhere on glass....

I tried probably all combination of starting tank - fresh live rock, reef ceramics with live rock, dry rock+live rock, dry rock+ceramics......

And path is similar, every method have their obstacles, but when starting with dry rock, just keep in mind that path is longer than usual, probably before 1 year mark you shouldn't consider that u have stable system....

Nothing happens fast, as for sand, i had exact situation, tried to clean it regularly, but gave up, again, i let the nature do its thing..... Sand is still not snow white and clean, but, some light brown patches are nothing to worry about for now, at least not me... 90% of sand is clean, but i'm at 8 months mark right now, so plenty of waiting is ahead to get everything sort itself out....

Most important, and this is more reminder to me, than saying to you....

Dont try to rush things, dont try to dose anything to speed up or clean things.....

 

[Sylvester]

I started with dry, new rock, and been in same situation, green algae, better said green rock and no coralline except for pumps....

Then, green slowly start do disappear, and rock started to getting purple coloration. Still have some spots of green, but nothing major....

Little green hair algae on back glass, but my fasciatus clean it regularly, coralline growth is everywhere on glass....

I tried probably all combination of starting tank - fresh live rock, reef ceramics with live rock, dry rock+live rock, dry rock+ceramics......

And path is similar, every method have their obstacles, but when starting with dry rock, just keep in mind that path is longer than usual, probably before 1 year mark you shouldn't consider that u have stable system....

Nothing happens fast, as for sand, i had exact situation, tried to clean it regularly, but gave up, again, i let the nature do its thing..... Sand is still not snow white and clean, but, some light brown patches are nothing to worry about for now, at least not me... 90% of sand is clean, but i'm at 8 months mark right now, so plenty of waiting is ahead to get everything sort itself out....

Most important, and this is more reminder to me, than saying to you....

Dont try to rush things, dont try to dose anything to speed up or clean things.....

Thank you for that. I appreciate that I’m not the only one that has had this issue.