Quinnchero
Community Member
Ok,
Long time hobbyist, 40+ years in the hobby. I lurk in almost every reef forum just to read. Very rarely do I post but this one is new to me and I have seen a thing or two in those 40 years.
I'm in the process of starting up a 40 gallon breeder. Been out of the hobby for about 2 years do to life changes and what-not. Been making small purchases of gear and supplies during that time. I plan on adding a build thread on this one because, IMHO, I have done a few unique things with this tank that I have not seen done very often. I'll get to those at a later date when I get to writing out that build thread. So to get to what I am posting about....
I started this tank with VERY dry rock. Wanted to try out starting a system from 99.9% scratch to avoid and nasties. Half (about 30 lbs) dry Pukani from BRS which sat for at least a year and a half in my garage; and the other half (20-25 lbs) from old rock I had sitting around in the garage for approximately 3 years. All of it was bleached for 2 days, and acid bathed for about 15 minutes prior to cycling. This rock is white as snow. I also added one bag (10 lbs )of Carib-Sea "live" sand and the rest was old sand that sat for the same 3 year time frame as the rock.
This was also the first time I have used a store bought nitrifying bacteria starter (Dr Tim's). I usually do the shrimp, or just add ammonia. Was hoping to see a quicker start-up. It did seem to speed up the process as far as my testing shows. As of day 6: Ammonia 0.2, Nitrite 2.0, Nitrates 5.0, and for giggles since I'm using Pukani I test for Phosphate as well: started out at 0.3 and is now 0.12 ppm. All other params are the standard 440, 9, and 1280. I am keeping temp a little higher (80-81) as to promote the BB. Lights are off 100% of the time in a generally dark room (blinds closed on one west facing wall). Zero WC so far.
So here's the thing....I have coralline algae popping up ALL over the place! This is day 9 of the cycle, waiting on Nitrite eating bac to show up in force. I have not placed a single item with coralline algae on it in the tank. In the past I always grab some scrapings from either a friend or a LFS to get the coralline started and that usually happens 5-6 weeks to 3 months after I get the cycle complete. So tonight I thought I'd kick on the lights for a few minutes to see what was shakin' and was very surprised. I'd say one quarter of the rocks now have the coralline chickenpox as I call them. Some are eraser size, some are bean size, and a few rocks have a lovely shade of the lightest pink on a good portion of them. All of them are on the side furthest from the natural light (minimal at best) and the larger spots are almost on the bottom of the rocks.
This was a pleasant surprise to say the least (I am a huge fan of multiple algae species on my rock). But confusing as well. The only place IMO that it could have come from is the "Live" sand. Is this more common than I think it is? I have used "Live" sand in many a tank, to somewhat questionable benefit to the tank in general. But I have never had coralline appear from that. And to have it growing with absolutely no light seems rather odd to me as well.
I guess I'm asking if anyone has had this occur during the cycle and under the conditions I have described above?
Thanks,
Q
Long time hobbyist, 40+ years in the hobby. I lurk in almost every reef forum just to read. Very rarely do I post but this one is new to me and I have seen a thing or two in those 40 years.
I'm in the process of starting up a 40 gallon breeder. Been out of the hobby for about 2 years do to life changes and what-not. Been making small purchases of gear and supplies during that time. I plan on adding a build thread on this one because, IMHO, I have done a few unique things with this tank that I have not seen done very often. I'll get to those at a later date when I get to writing out that build thread. So to get to what I am posting about....
I started this tank with VERY dry rock. Wanted to try out starting a system from 99.9% scratch to avoid and nasties. Half (about 30 lbs) dry Pukani from BRS which sat for at least a year and a half in my garage; and the other half (20-25 lbs) from old rock I had sitting around in the garage for approximately 3 years. All of it was bleached for 2 days, and acid bathed for about 15 minutes prior to cycling. This rock is white as snow. I also added one bag (10 lbs )of Carib-Sea "live" sand and the rest was old sand that sat for the same 3 year time frame as the rock.
This was also the first time I have used a store bought nitrifying bacteria starter (Dr Tim's). I usually do the shrimp, or just add ammonia. Was hoping to see a quicker start-up. It did seem to speed up the process as far as my testing shows. As of day 6: Ammonia 0.2, Nitrite 2.0, Nitrates 5.0, and for giggles since I'm using Pukani I test for Phosphate as well: started out at 0.3 and is now 0.12 ppm. All other params are the standard 440, 9, and 1280. I am keeping temp a little higher (80-81) as to promote the BB. Lights are off 100% of the time in a generally dark room (blinds closed on one west facing wall). Zero WC so far.
So here's the thing....I have coralline algae popping up ALL over the place! This is day 9 of the cycle, waiting on Nitrite eating bac to show up in force. I have not placed a single item with coralline algae on it in the tank. In the past I always grab some scrapings from either a friend or a LFS to get the coralline started and that usually happens 5-6 weeks to 3 months after I get the cycle complete. So tonight I thought I'd kick on the lights for a few minutes to see what was shakin' and was very surprised. I'd say one quarter of the rocks now have the coralline chickenpox as I call them. Some are eraser size, some are bean size, and a few rocks have a lovely shade of the lightest pink on a good portion of them. All of them are on the side furthest from the natural light (minimal at best) and the larger spots are almost on the bottom of the rocks.
This was a pleasant surprise to say the least (I am a huge fan of multiple algae species on my rock). But confusing as well. The only place IMO that it could have come from is the "Live" sand. Is this more common than I think it is? I have used "Live" sand in many a tank, to somewhat questionable benefit to the tank in general. But I have never had coralline appear from that. And to have it growing with absolutely no light seems rather odd to me as well.
I guess I'm asking if anyone has had this occur during the cycle and under the conditions I have described above?
Thanks,
Q
