gravel and a piece of live rock going brown

[spanair]

HEy guys,

I just wanted to know what's going on, as i've had the tank cycling for about 3 weeks now, 2 weeks with live rock.

The gravel has brown spots (same colour as on the live rock) all over it. Is not to bad yet but theres lots of spots around the gravel. One piece of live rock which doesent have as much coral etc on it is truning very brown rust like colour as well.

I just wanted to know more as what is causing this ?

Theres a peppermint shrimp in there which I dont want it to get harmed ro anything.

Thanks guys, and i'll take pics after so you can see it which is better.

 

[leanne]

I had the brown algae to start with but I put in a couple of turbo snails and a couple of hermit crabs and they cleared it up.

 

[spanair]

Will the turbo snails and hermit crabs be compatible with the peppermint srhimp though ?

Thanks

 

[EMdina]

Hi
I have had my tank running/cycling for about 4 weeks now, and have also developed that same 'algae'...I did some reading (and someone please correct me if I'm way off base here) and from what I understand is that at different phases of cycling, different algae will grow and then die off....I have a couple of friends that have set up their tanks the same time I have (we're kind of all doing this together)
and have also had this brown/red algae...I put snails and hermit crabs in my tank and they are really taking care of the substrate- i just run a magnetic algae remover down the walls and that seems to work...

 

[leanne]

Hermit crabs and turbo snails are fine with peppermint shrimp.

 

[spanair]

Thanks for the response guys, I bought 3 turbo snails for now + the peppermint shrimp from before. I'll post some pics in my diary later today .

Thanks once again

 

[ade]

Looks like I'm about a day or so behind you now Span Mine started going brown on Friday, looking a bit strange now. I'm off on hols on Friday, so won't be getting any livestock until after then - just wondering how brown it'll be when I get back! lol

 

[Fuzzy]

if the brown algea stays for a really long time, that just means u dont have enough light

 

[ade]

Mine is getting browner by the day if not the hour. Was out for the day today and when I got home the sand was noticeably browner. Can't believe it's lack of light as I've got brand new T5s on there.

Span - I'll try and give Simon at HM a call tomorrow to pick his brains if I get a chance.

Cheers

 

[spanair]

lol is good to see we are in a similar place now ade, same sort of things also happening at around the same time abouts. . My algae seems to have calmed down now. I spent a good amout of money on the T5's and reflectors so I dont think it should be that I hope. Any hows Since the algae has gone down pretty rapidly

I shall be picking the final amount of LR this coming weekend hopefully

Here is a pic of the 3 turbo snails (which btw dont seem that fast to me ) minus the shrimp who likes to hide .