Strider's 55 gallon reef learning exeriance.

[Strider199]

Went to the lfs on the way home tonight and bought a skunk cleaner shrimp. After drip acclimating it for 1 1/2 hours(with an air line in the hob container), I released it into the tank. The shrimp is on the large side, almost 2 inches. We will see if I have the set-up right.

[hockeyhead019]

Wow is your cycle done that quick? Seems like a super quick turn around time for a cycle on a 55

[Strider199]

I was testing positive for ammonia almost from the time I put the live rock in. Checked water parameters every three days until 0 ppms of ammonia. I checked for nitrites and nitrates after that for awhile. Added live sand during that time and started the ammonia testing again.

API liquid test kit tonight shows;
0ppm ammonia
0ppm nitrite
.25ppm nitrate.

It took around 5 weeks to get to this point hockeyhead.

[Strider199]

Today I noticed that the live sand and live rock are turning a brownish colour. I take it this is from diatoms? I am leaving my light on 10-12 hours lately to try and get some algae growth for my planned stock.
The question; is this the right track to go down or should I cut back on the lighting?
I have green algae growth in a few spots on the live rock and there is, never mind, I'll take a few pictures and post them. A pic is worth a thousand words after-all.

[Cliff]

Did you just use live sand, or a combination of live sand and other marine sand ?

Also, did you use RO water on the intial tank filling or tap water ?

[Strider199]

The live sand went in awhile ago and it is the only substrate in the tank. The live rock was already in there when I was cycling.
The only water in the tank comes from the r/o system I installed in December.

That was fun, it took many trips to the store for all the fittings.

[Cliff]

This is odd then, you should not have any silicates in your water, unless the "live sand" you bought as actually a mixture of normal sand and "live" sand when it was packaged by the company

Try adding a HOB filter with a bag of Chemi-pure. If the brown algae starts to go away in a week or two, your substrate is leaching silicates and is a poor quality. If not, I'm guessing your rock is leaching out silicates

[Strider199]

I did hang my HOB on the tank a week ago with just a polishing pad to clear up the live sand suspended particles. I will get a Chemi-pure bag tomorrow and install it to see what happens.

My usb port isn't working for some reason at this time so I couldn't d/l any pictures. Still working on that.

The water is clear, the brown is only on the sand and rock. I bought the most expensive live sand Big Als had so I thought I was safe from diatoms.

[Cliff]

Please google pics of Dinoflangellates and compaire that to what is in your tank

They can be commonly mistaken for diatoms. This might be the case here as you should not have any silicates in your tank unless you have poor quality substrate or rock

[Strider199]

The water is clear, there is nothing floating in the water. The brownish growth is only on top of the live sand and on some of the live rock. It is not a slimy growth like dinoflangellates look like. If I stir the live sand a bit there is no brown cloud.

Now I did use a coral supplement a few days ago called fuel for reefs by aquavitro. This liquid is the same colour as the growth I have.
I'm not sure if they are related but thats all I can come up with.

On a bright note, I bought my first fish today, a fire dart-fish.

I found a small (owned by 2 guys) store in Burlington that specializes in salt water reef species. I bought 3 frags from them yesterday and today I went back for my fish.
These guys treat the store tanks like most of us treat our home tanks. The place is spotless. I was able to see my fish feed before purchasing it. Nice to know it eats flake food. Big Als is not the only game in town any more.