rusty/brown spots on my rock

[mackmrtn]

Tank is a month old… is this normal?

 

[Reeferjunkie]

Yeah your rock is going through its ugly phase and will get balance after awhile

 

[tharbin]

Really hard to tell from those photos. In general, help photos need to be taken under white light as the blues tend to hide many things. But, a quick guess is yes it is normal. It is most likely diatoms which are an early colonizer. They will eventually die off.

 

[The_Skrimp]

The browns. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. It's just a normal part of cycling a new tank. If you haven't yet, now would be a good time to beef up your clean up crew.

 

[mackmrtn]

Really hard to tell from those photos. In general, help photos need to be taken under white light as the blues tend to hide many things. But, a quick guess is yes it is normal. It is most likely diatoms which are an early colonizer. They will eventually die off.

 

[Timfish]

Yup. It will take about 8-12 months for your system to mature and during the maturing process there will be different algae shwoing up and fading away. I'd suggest reading AquBiomics article here. You may find these videos by various researchers looking at what happens on reefs informative and helpfull in understanding the complexities of your system:


"Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" This video compliments Rohwer's book of the same title (Paper back is ~$20, Kindle is ~$10), both deal with the conflicting roles of the different types of DOC in reef ecosystems. While there is overlap bewteen his book and the video both have information not covered by the other and together give a broader view of the complex relationships found in reef ecosystems

Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes

Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont

BActeria and Sponges

Maintenance of Coral Reef Health (refferences at the end)

Optical Feedback Loop in Colorful Coral Bleaching

Richard Ross What's up with phosphate"

 

[mackmrtn]

Really hard to tell from those photos. In general, help photos need to be taken under white light as the blues tend to hide many things. But, a quick guess is yes it is normal. It is most likely diatoms which are an early colonizer. They will eventually die off.

 

[mackmrtn]

Sorry about the blue photos, I posted new ones.

 

[mackmrtn]

Really hard to tell from those photos. In general, help photos need to be taken under white light as the blues tend to hide many things. But, a quick guess is yes it is normal. It is most likely diatoms which are an early colonizer. They will eventually die off.

Sorry I turned the whites up and thought that would show up better on camera. I posted some better ones.

 

[tharbin]

Thanks, yes that is diatoms. The good news is you don't get them until your tank is pretty much cycled. The bad news is you get them. They are not harmful and can happen from time to time even in a mature tank. Their main sources of nutrition are silica and nitrates.

 

[mackmrtn]

Thanks, yes that is diatoms. The good news is you don't get them until your tank is pretty much cycled. The bad news is you get them. They are not harmful and can happen from time to time even in a mature tank. Their main sources of nutrition are silica and nitrates.

Yes I knew to expect the ugly stage. Just wasn’t sure how it started. Will I need to treat it with anything? Should I get a head start? Or just let it do it’s thing?

 

[mackmrtn]

Should I do a water change?

 

[mackmrtn]

The browns. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. It's just a normal part of cycling a new tank. If you haven't yet, now would be a good time to beef up your clean up crew.

I actually haven’t gotten anything yet I was worried about them having enough to eat. What should I start with?

 

[The_Skrimp]

I'd keep consistent with weekly water changes. no need to do more. Most of the brown spots are likely to be diatoms which will go away once the silicates in your rock, sand, and tank are exhausted. Extra water changes could actually make it worse if you have a lot of silicates in your local water. Trochus are probably the best snails but they're harder to find. Astraea snails, turbos, and cerith snails are pretty good with keeping them under control too.