LR and Live Sand turning brown?

J

jgaepi

AC Members
Sep 21, 2004
17
0
0
San Diego, CA
Someone might have posted this in the past, but I wasn't able to find it. My tank has been cycling for 2 weeks now. I am noticing that one live rock and some of my live sand is turning brown. I have only been running 65 watts worth of light for about 16 hours per day, but the tank is 24 inches deep. I am mainly running the lights for look, but realize that 65 watts isn't going to be able to reach 24 inches of depth. Any ideas?
On a side note for those that know a lot about Peppermint shrimp. One of my shrimp has been on his back since yesterday morning. He isn't dead, and kicks his legs. Once I gently rolled him on his belly and within 5 minutes he was back on his back. Any ideas? I thought maybe he is molting but wouldn't he be hiding?
 
The brown stuff is probably diatom algae. It's the first step in the succession of pesky algae in a new tank. It will help to cut the lights, but will probably go away on its own.

The shrimp doesn't sound good. When they molt, they hold on to a solid surface with their feet, so it's not molting. Two possibilbilities that come to mind are shock from acclimation (when did the shrimop go in, and how was it acclimated?), or that it's suffering from being in a cycling tank.
 
Dead

Well Dave it is funny that you suggest suffering from a cycling tank because they were dead this morning. But this is interesting, I did water tests only 24 hours before time of death and

pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0.5
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

I had this weird assumption that my tank was near its complete cycle, but I am now assuming not. I was not able to do a test before work this morning, so it will have to wait until tonight. I really would like to think it is due to tank cycling, but I hope nothing worse. I will also be around my LFS on Sat and will have a cup of my water professionally sampled.
I killed the lights.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom