Brown on rocks and sand?

[FishShack]

Hi everyone,

My tank finished cycling about 3 to 4 weeks ago. Been great so far, I added two clowns and 4 cromies so far and a 1 banded shrimp, 4 hermit crabs and 1 jawbone which hides in his hole. I am using RO water from glacier vending machine. I have base rock and live rock from fls.

This week I noticed brown coloration on my rocks and sand, live rock has no issue still beautiful. Can someone tell me what's going on? My water parameters are great 0, 0, 20ppm, temp 76 and ph 8.2 and everyone in the tank is great. Just weird that brown colorization is happening..

 

[carey]

Youre getting diatoms, perfectly normal in a new tank. they will burn themselves out in a few weeks so no need to worry, its nothing you have done wrong or anything.

 

[mr_X]

Yes. It's a diatom bloom. Everyone had to experience this early on. It's just part of starting up a new system. Once the food source is eliminated, it will go away as fast as it came. They say silicates are diatoms primary food source.

 

[FishShack]

Whew Thank you lol, was worried that I did something wrong ....

 

[VinnyLLU]

You can get some turbo snails to mow that stuff down

 

[carey]

But then you have to feed the turbos and they poop thus adding to the nitrates. They will go away without adding anything. Unless of course you like turbo snails. lol