[krsult]

I have a new 14 gallon tank right now it has a Emerald crab and a Blue Damsel. Today when I got home from work I noticed a lot of my rock has turned brown (tanish). Is this a form of Algea?

I would attach a pic. but I can't the only 2 I have the file is to big. How do I make it small enough to fit. Never posted a pic on th einternet before.

[pogodzib]

Since you say that your tank is new, it is probably just getting to the end stages of the "cycle". Usually right after the cycle completes, people get a brown algae bloom which lasts for a couple weeks and then it should go away.

[krsult]

Tank has been up and running about a week is that the right time frame. Didn't add any criters until Wednesday.

[wesley6610]

Has your diatom problem cleared up yet?

[ncdiablo]

Ok I have several questions to ask before I can give an accurate answer. Since you have only had your tank up for less than 2 weeks. Did you use pre cured live rock that you bought from your LFS? Did you buy online pre cured live rock? Did you buy uncured live rock from LFS or from Online?

If it was pre cured live rock from LFS you will only have a slight bit of die off and so yes you could be experiencing some diotom bloom.

If however it was bought online then you could be experiencing not necessarily diotom bloom so much as die off. It is important to clean your rock before putting it in when buying online. So if you didn't clean it heavily you could simply be seeing die off.

If you bought uncured live rock either from LFS or online or semi cured live rock then you could definately be experiencing die off and again you would have to make sure you did a good job cleaning your live rock before putting into your tank.

Adding critters 1-2 weeks after having your tank up is somewhat dangerous. The damsel will probably make it through cycling but your crab might not since they have poor abilities to handle the spikes.

Steven

[krsult]

Well I have very little brown stuff on my LR now. I have added more live rock since then. The previous LR (from LFS) was pre-cured. One rock has a beautiful colorazation on it. I am starting to get the brown algae on the substrate and glass now. I plan on adding a few snails and a queen conch this week. Hopefully that will start clearing it up. The wierd thing is since I have added LR I have found dead hermits in the tank. I can acount for all mine. I know there was a live hermit on the LR when I got it but where did the dead ones come from. I have 5 red and 5 blue in the tank. I just found a red one laying by one of my new LRs. I counted all mine and they are there. Could this have been in the LR and is just falling out. I put the LR in on Friday (9/14).

[wesley6610]

Its very possible that they were in fact hitch hikers on your LR that you put in.

[ncdiablo]

It can also be molts that have occurred as well. This happened to me after I had added my clean up crew of hermits. I had several molt and I thought they were dead hermits but found the live ones a day or two later.


Steven

[wesley6610]

I've had that happen to me as well, but only with true crabs like Emeralds.