New Tank ?

[guardgz]

Hello all, my girlfriend and I have had our tank set up for about a week now. We have an 85 gal. tank with two or the side hanging filters, a power head. We also have about 80lbs of live rock and 40lbs of live sand and 9 damsels in the tank. We now have a brown algae all over the rocks and sand on the bottom. Is this good or bad?

 

[thincat]

First Welcome to AA. It's to bad you are cycling your tank with live fish. It puts lots of stress on those fish and some may not make it. Also you may have a hard time adding any new fish with so many Damsels in there if they all make it. They can be real terrors once they set up territories
What kind of tank are you striving for. Fish Only with Live Rock (FOWLR) or a full reef setup?

 

[melosu58]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articles/articles/3/1/Cycle-your-salt-tank/Page1.html

 

[guardgz]

Well I was just reading about that, and all the people we are talking to about our tank says that they are ok and that the guy from the fish store said he will take them back when we are read for new fish, he has over 30 years of experiance but we are talking to several people so we can get as much info as possible. As of right now they are very active and eating just fine.. Right now we have a FOWLR, but maybe later have coral not sure yet. But our tank has only been up for a week and the damsels have been in there for a week also.

 

[melosu58]

THE LFS is there to make a sale. When you say they are OK you really dont know what they are going though. The article says it all.

 

[guardgz]

Yes you are right, my good friend has a 110 gal tank and started off with damsels and still has them 2 yrs later, they are getting huge too.. but your right I don't know what they go through, and if I seen that article before I would probably have started it differently, but thanks for the info its all really helpful!! And I will definately ask before I try anything new!! lol

 

[melosu58]

Good luck on the tank and Welcome to AA

 

[Speakerman]

We now have a brown algae all over the rocks and sand on the bottom. Is this good or bad?

I guess back to the main question...Brown algae in a bran new tank, more than likely diatoms, which are natural and perfectly fine. Once the tank if cycled and all of the rock is cured the diatoms will just sort of disappear.

The live fish that you have to keep feeding in there while the tank is cycling is going to cause a lot more diatom activity.

 

[thincat]

I know that some people are against water changes during the cycle period, but in your case seen you have the Damsels in there I would watch the readings and do PWC (partial water changes) to keep the water in a range that the fish can handle. Ammonia and Nitrites are the killers.