What's growing on my rock

[robjensen82]

Hi there,

I'm very new to salt water aquariums. I'm trying to start a new tank and I have had persistently high ammonia in my tank. I've added Dr Tims One and only and it didn't lower the ammonia. There are no fish in the tank, only rocks and my sand. My rock wasn't that clean going into the tank and when I removed it recently for cleaning I noticed some dead stuff falling off the rock. I guess algae? Anyway, I've had the rock soaking in bleach for 3-4 days (about 20% bleach) and today I took it out and water blasted (power washed) the rock.

I was thinking it should look cleaner after so much bleach and water blasting and I noticed some red stuff on the rock. Can anyone tell me if the red stuff on the rock is something to worry about? Okay to put rocks in the tank soaking after in a de-chlorinate soluation?

 

[Taxman20]

Its probably part of the cycle and needs to happen. Dont clean the rock because thats where the good things will grow. Give it time and let it cycle out. That can take a month or months to complete. Just do some reading on cycling a tank. Take your time with it and it will be better off when you sart adding stuff. And add slowly or you could get another cycle.