New LR turning black?

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FishN00b83

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Joined
Jun 7, 2011
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Location
Queens NYC
I started a 29 biocube when I moved into my new apartment about a week ago. I had a hermit crab, fire shrimp, and 2 nassi snails in a 6g so I put em in the 29. I put about 9 pounds of LR in to get started with a bag of LS (it's a 1.5in deep bed. I used live seawater to help the cycle along too (I'll mix my own once it's done cycling).

One thing I have noticed is some parts of the LR are getting these black stripes, and I was just wondering what this could be. I got 5g of RO water from the LFS that I have been adding in for top off until I get my ATO setup again. I posted 2 pictures below, but they look worse then what it really is. Should I just let it rock for a bit or so I need to do something about this now?
 

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It could be cyano from a die off in the rock. If it can be siphoned off I would do so, otherwise I would be doing real water changes and monitoring every other day.
 
Looks like die off what type of lights and how close they are could be a factor. Test your water and everything should be fine.
 
Gregcoyote said:
It could be cyano from a die off in the rock. If it can be siphoned off I would do so, otherwise I would be doing real water changes and monitoring every other day.

Yep, definitely looks like a case of cyano
 
Wow that's not what I waned to hear. Isn't cyano the worst thing to have in your tank. I had it real bad in my little 6g and that's what made me start over, now I'm getting it in this tank? AWESOME!

As for the lights, I just have the stock ones that come with the biocube, and I leave em on for about 8 hours a day, then I turn the moonlights on. maybe I should only put the daylight bulb on and scratch the antinic until I have coral in there?

What should I do to fix this problem now so I don't throw this tank out lol
 
Cyano really isn't bad at all. It's just a bacteria. It's eating excess organics. So when you get rid of those organics through water changes, the cyano will starve and go away.
 
crister13 said:
Cyano really isn't bad at all. It's just a bacteria. It's eating excess organics. So when you get rid of those organics through water changes, the cyano will starve and go away.

Some species of cyano can release toxins but for the most part i agree that cyano in and of itself is not harmful other than if out of control it can smother coral
 
If you're cycling with only live rock you could use the blue lights and not the daylights. A big factor with cyano is low water flow, especially if it's growing on the rock. Do you have any powerheads in the tank?
 
Yeah I have a koralia nano in there but I was thinking maybe getting something a little bigger? Also i saw on amazon I can get a protein skimmer that will fit in the back of the biocube. Would that help keep things under control?

A side note...I tried rubbing the black stuff off and it is really on there...it's almost a part of the rock
 
FishN00b83 said:
Yeah I have a koralia nano in there but I was thinking maybe getting something a little bigger? Also i saw on amazon I can get a protein skimmer that will fit in the back of the biocube. Would that help keep things under control?

A side note...I tried rubbing the black stuff off and it is really on there...it's almost a part of the rock

Skimmers on cubes don't seem to produce much foam. Cyano should just blow away...must be something else related.
 
Gregcoyote said:
Skimmers on cubes don't seem to produce much foam. Cyano should just blow away...must be something else related.

Agree cyano is easy to remove
 
FishN00b83 said:
Yeah I have a koralia nano in there but I was thinking maybe getting something a little bigger? Also i saw on amazon I can get a protein skimmer that will fit in the back of the biocube. Would that help keep things under control?

A side note...I tried rubbing the black stuff off and it is really on there...it's almost a part of the rock

The skimmer may help, but I wouldn't spend much money on one in that size tank. I hear the ones for the biocube can be very hard to adjust to work properly. You may want to make a separate post about them in the equipment section.

If it's almost part of the rock then it's probably not a bad algae. Its the slimy stuff that you don't want to see. Anything that encrusts the rock is likely to be beneficial. I bet you don't have a problem at all! :)
 
Well that's good news! I'm just really being cautious because of the last nightmare I had...thanks for the info. I'll make a separate thread regarding the skimmer. Thanks!!
 
I've had black spots on my live rock before. I cleaned and rearranged my tank and I guess the rock didn't like being flipped over because the coralline algae started to die on that side and turned black. My water was perfect. I lessened my lighting time and built back up to where I was before and it's fine now. Idk if that's what did it but it happened to go away when I did.
 
Yeah I did lower the lightin time on the tank until I coral and more life in there. Hopefully between that and the small water changes I'll be ok.
 
i'am currently curing some rock by itself in a trash can and have the same black spots/lines on the rocks.im thinking its just die off....
 
Marco V said:
i'am currently curing some rock by itself in a trash can and have the same black spots/lines on the rocks.im thinking its just die off....

If live rock comes in with sponges they usually turn black as they decompose. If you take the rock out, smell it, and the spots stink you can scrub the dead black areas in a separate container with a new firm toothbrush. Removing dead sponges reduces the powerful ammonia spike that comes from new rock die-off. It helps other healthy life on the rock to survive.
 
I did noticed some sponges on there before that aren't there now . Should they be scrubbed in SW or RODI?
 
You could, but I'd leave it. Anerobic bacteria growth from die off on your rock. How old did you say it was? The live rock might have been out of the water a little too long, and or maybe it just got turned the wrong way
 
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