Live Rock after 1 week

[ellisz]

Hi all,

I noticed a couple of thing on my rock today...

Background: Rock is from Liveaquaria.com and has been curing since last Thursday. The Ammonia and Nitrites have spiked. I noticed the Nitrites going down last night. Ammonia was zero after 3-4 days. This was with water changes every other day.

We noticed a purple finger like thing sticking out today. Looks like a little coral. Do I need to do anything for this to make it grow bigger? See pic. This was as close I could get and still focus.

I also noticed on 2 pieces of base rock I bought at the LFS that some white stuff is growing on it. Is this ok? I figured it was a good sign. One piece is just sitting in the sand with no other real LR on it.

There are also some little clam/oyster shell looking pieces that are open and even what appears to be a very little worm with 2 white hairs sticking out in the water.

Edit: btw, the squigly white lines in the 3rd pic is an arrow pointing to a purple coral?

 

[blancoh2o]

Give it time.

I am a new LR owner as well. My LR was pretty much cured when I brought it home. There was no huge spike on any of the tests. The thing you are after is stability. Don't make big changes of anything. Let nature take it's course. Once you have no Amonia, Nitrites and Nitrates, go for it slowly, monitor for change, get stable and then add more livestock. That is what I have done and everything seems to be fine

 

[fishfreek]

I wish I could tell ya from the photos but I cant see much to identify with.

It soundsl ike your on your way to a good live rock purchase. Do keep an eye on the ammonia levels for a bit just to make sure as the period you describe seems awful short to me.

 

[ellisz]

We were definately surprised with the purple find

The odd thing was the white stuff that is spreading to the base rock. I read some stuff in a search for white spots on LR and saw that the LR could be fouled or someone even said it could be some LR disease.

Sorry about the pics but I could not get my camera to focus that close.

As for the levels, the ammonia went sky high after putting the LR in and then came down a few day later. The Nitrites went up at the same time the ammonia was coming down. The nitrites have come down but are still here.

 

[Dewey]

rock

I think the white stuff is parable coralline allege which is a good thing.
Good luck Dewey

 

[ellisz]

Thanks all.

I am surprised how quickly the stuff has spread to my base rock. The rock kind of looked like dried up LR to begin with, now it looks very real

I put my big snail in the tank and he has been cruising around the rock and sand. He is doing well. I will check my level again tomorrow and probably do another water change. There is quite a bit of black stuff in the sand and some stuff flapping in the current on the rock. We have seen more little worms too. I might be a few more snails and maybe even some hermits to clean stuff up a bit before even thinking of moving my fish over.

 

[fishfreek]

The black stuff is probabaly cyano. This is something that is common in new tanks. You can remove it with a syphon hose. Hold it above the cyano and slowly lower it till its sucked up the syphon hose. This should keep you from getting to much of the sand.