What is this brown stuff on my sand, glass and rock

[jason1985]

Okay so my tank is still in its cycle. its been running for two weeks now.
the only lighting i have is actinics 8hours or more a day. no real reason just so i can see the tank.

right now i have brown stuff growing on my live rock, sand and glass. What could this be. is this bad?
ro-di water

salinity 1.025
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 5
see pics below help please.
some sports are darker then others.. brown spots all over my sand ! |

 

[Dary421]

It's called diatoms.., it's a normal thing during your cycle time,..it'll probably get worse before it gets better,...but it'll go away by itself just as fast as it comes.
Type in diatoms in the " search " field at the top of the forum and you should get a lot of help and info,...patience ,patience

 

[David S]

Diatoms,its just part of the cycle,they'll go as quickly as they appeared

 

[jason1985]

Thx for the quick reply!! We learn as we go!
I do have a chromis in the tank to help cycle and hes doing really well. Kind of lonely but he'll get some new friends in a few weeks

 

[Dary421]

Thx for the quick reply!! We learn as we go!
I do have a chromis in the tank to help cycle and hes doing really well. Kind of lonely but he'll get some new friends in a few weeks

Probably not the most humane thing to do,.....kinda like being in a garage with a car running,...you might live thru it but you might not be too happy about it,....there's a lot of good topics about tank cycling on this forum,..here again ,...try the " search" engine

 

[austinsdad]

You're cycling with fish. Having been around here for a while, thought you might have seen extensive discsussion already about the more humane way to do it with rock or grocery store shrimp.

One good thing I guess is that maybe your rock was cured and already established. Therefore no toxic ammonia that the fish have to endure. That's the inhumane part I was speaking of. Your tank is not cycling. Maybe it won't need to if you've got zero ammonia and no nitrites. Didja ever see any at all?

 

[jason1985]

The rock was already cycled in my other thank that was up and running and still is running.. In two weeks i havent seen any ammonia spikes at all... If i was cycling with un cured rock id never put a fish in! The chromis only wen in on wed night.... And my tests are good so i dont see a problem! I was just curious as to why i have diatoms

 

[austinsdad]

All new tanks have diatoms for a while. It'll pass.

 

[jason1985]

Diatoms are fadding, sand is almost back to its natural colour

Turbo Snails are looking happy.

Amonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate Good
Temp 78
ph 8

Clowns and Yellow Tang looking healthy, swimming around and eating well.