THIS is NORMAL?????

[SWMWTHDAFISHES]

Here's a pic of my tank. No, it isn't going to look like this when it's done, LOL. For reasons that aren't really relevant, I can't really "arrange" my tank until a couple more weeks, so I just have about 30 lbs of live rock sitting in there. Now, on to my question. I know that everyone keeps telling me, like the LFS, that brown algae is normal for a tank that is cycling, but Good Grief!!!! I'm beginning to wonder about that. How much is normal? I think this looks a little excessive to me and I thought that is was something that kind of showed up, then went away. It's been here for a week and only seems to be getting worse. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the Prizm protein skimmer that I have. Can't seem to get the darned thing working right. At first, water just flowed into the collector cup, now, nothing seems to, even though I have adjusted it every way possible (with the one whole valve that it has on it). Also, keep in mind that this tank was used when I got it, it's about a year and a half old and we wet-transported the bio-wheel to try to keep the bacteria alive as much as possible, although I'm sure there was some dieoff. By the way, I have a 75-gal with Wet-Dry and bio-wheel and the skimmer. My tank seems to be cycling, I had a good amount of ammonia in there, but that's down to zero now and my Nitrites are at .05, they were zero and went up to .1, but now are at .05 like I said. Nitrates are slightly showing, too, now, but there has been no change in these readings for a couple of days. I did my first 10% water change yesterday. Oh, and the only thing in the tank right now is a light cleaning crew.

Now that I have given you all of the info that I could think of, does anyone have any ideas for me? Is this normal? Should I be investigating? Help!

Carisa

 

[chkltcow]

You using tap water? Diatom algae LOVES phosphates and silicates from normal tap water. Try some type of Phosphate reducing filter media to prevent future diatom algae, and get some hermit crabs to clean up what's there now.

 

[jimdogg187]

yeah its normal. like chkltcow said, it probably the tap water. reduce the lighting and as soon as your tank is cycled and get some turbo snails and an algae blenny. they will take care of all that and more in like two days. it completely normal for brown algae to grow. the reason why it growing so much is because you don't have enough of a clean up crew to to maintain it yet. be patient, your tank will look just fine when you get it up and running. when i cured my live rock my whole tank turned brown with crazy algae growing everywhere. oh yeah, you can also stir the sand a bit and that will help that area out. good luck. jim

 

[Navarre]

Yep completely normal


As has been mentioned its the normal cycle of a tank. WHen this is fisnihed you will very probably find the red slimy stuff (Cyano) will take up residence.
A new tanks needs to balance itself and during the early days you will find large swings in algea blooms etc as each type tries to take advantage. Eventually the tank will level out and a more stable environment will take hold.

As for the skimmer. You wont get and collection from it yet. You cannot skim from a tank that has nothing to skim from. No fish means no nutrients worth skimming. Once you start to add significant livestock then you will see a difference in the skimmer and it will start to collect for you.

 

[SWMWTHDAFISHES]

I have a cleaning crew already, although not much of one. I had 5 hermit crabs and 3 snails. I did decide to go ahead and add to that and got 5 or 6 more hermit crabs and 2 Mexican snails today. Also, I got my Phosphates checked while I was there, and they were out of the roof!!!!!! Way, way high, so I got some phosphate filter media and they said that should take care of it in about a week. The thing that worries me is that the 5 existing hermit crabs have not moved at all in like 2 days and so I was a little worried about why they were so sluggish all of a sudden. They said at the fish store maybe phosphates were affecting them, but I may have figured it out and it wasn't phosphates. What do you guys feed your hermit crabs? Thanks again, everyone for helping with the diatom bloom, I hope it starts lessening now that the phosphate media is in there.

 

[Navarre]

Are they red legs? they sound like em Red legs are notoriously lazy to be honest. If you can see the crabs and they are moving their antena or picking up bits of food then there s nothing to relaly be worried about. I would do a check for copper though as this is highly toxic.

I have had redlegs sit in the same spot for almost a week and tey were fine. They might be ready for moulting as this can happen soon after being added to a new tank.

 

[SWMWTHDAFISHES]

Well, this is going well--NOT. I had a blue-leg dead and out of his shell this morning. I have no idea what the problem is. I thought hermit crabs ate off of the live rock? You would think 30 lbs of live rock would be enough for 5 crabs (3 blues and 2 reds). None of them are moving around, blue or red and now 1 dead. I am told that high phosphates shouldn't effect hermit crabs too much. I have no ammonia, no nitrites, only a little nitrates (I'm still cycling, so that is OK, I'm told), what the heck? I haven't been putting any food in the tank until yesterday, when I got the damsel. If I'm supposed to be feeding the hermits something other than live rock, I would think that the fish store would have told me that, knowing that they were the first thing in the tank. Their tentacles aren't moving, they are just curled up in their shells. I have tried to be so careful, did all of my research, and was trying to do everything by the book (or the forum, depending) and my crabs are still dying. This is really discouraging, but I am determined to fix the problem. Of course, it would be great if I knew what the heck the problem was!

 

[3fsh]

I would definitely check for copper. It is toxic to invertebrates. Sorry for your losses.

 

[SWMWTHDAFISHES]

Nope, no copper in the water. I checked my water for copper before I ever put a drop in the tank and I just checked the actual tank water again, to be sure, and there is none. The mystery continues...

 

[Navarre]

Are ou sure they are dead? They might have shed their skins. Hermits and shrimps do this soon after being introduced to a new tank or different water perameters.

 

[jimdogg187]

how long did you acclimate them for? inverts need at least 45 minutes to 1 hour of acclimation time. i've got a huge red leg hermit that kept pulling my other small hermits out of their shells. maybe there was something like that going on?? i placed him in my refugium and sometimes he goes days without moving. please don't be discouraged. be patient. let the tank run for a couple of days then very slowly acclimate some new hermits. but try to find some TURBO snails. they work wonders cleaning up algae.

 

[SWMWTHDAFISHES]

Yeah, it was just one dead, a blue leg, but definately dead. He did actually shed his skin, I saw it laying beside him, but he wasn't moving at all and I checked for a while. I took him out, just to be sure and no movement at all, definately gone-zo. By the way, I acclimated them for over 2 hours and they have been in there for over a week now. Hopefully, he is the only one that won't make it, we'll see, I guess. Currently holding my breath