LR has brown coating on it

[jandc805]

My tank has particles floating all over the tank and the 10lbs of LR in it has a brown coating on it that looks furry/hair like. All readings are 0 and my salinity is 1.024. This started happening after cycling and my tank has been up for about 6-7 weeks. Could this be a phosphate problem? I originally used my neighbors water to start my tank since he had that water softening system in his home. Any thought?
Thanks

 

[EriksFish315]

A picture would help but sounds like diatoms and should go away shortly.

 

[jandc805]

I have attached a pic of the rock. It looks like heavy dust on it not sure if you could tell much since the rock is behind my insert the pic was a bit hard to get. hope it works since I have never attached a pic

View attachment untitled.bmp

 

[jandc805]

I just put my astrea snails on the rock and it looks like they are cleaning it up, hopefully they get it all!

 

[EriksFish315]

Yeah if they don't get it all it will die off eventually

 

[don_chuwish]

We've been using tap water and it must have a bit of silicates in it. Seems every PWC generates a new diatom bloom. Just when things are looking good too.
So next PWC (today) is going to be with the good stuff - local Water Store does 5G refills for $1. We'll see if it helps!

- D

 

[EriksFish315]

What size is your tank it might be worth getting a ro di unit and save time and money.

 

[don_chuwish]

Tell me about it! I'm on the BRS group buy and came VERY close to getting a unit. But I sat down and did the math. Even factoring in the cost of the containers (why are they so expensive?) it'd take me about 3 years of weekly PWCs to pay for a decent RO/DI. $1/5G - 5G weekly PWC...
Add that to the fact that in this rental we don't really have a good place to set one up and I might as well wait until we're in a better location. The Water Store is 2 miles away - easy enough.

- D

 

[EriksFish315]

Oh i got ya makes sense for the price and convinece to your water source.