Here comes the brown...

[CincyGida]

I cycled my first shipment about 5-6 days go and almost overnight I'm beginning to see everything turn brown. I've read about this somewhere before, and I think it's natural, but not quite sure.

Should I let it go and start monitoring the standard levels again and perform a water change?

 

[tspfish]

Hey CincyGida,

I had the same thing happen to me a month ago when I cycled the first half of my package. This is a normal part of cycle process that happens when the silica gets real high. The brown is accually diatom's, a type of algae that feeds off the silica. I found that with my first tank the hermits and snails will clean this a little. It probably won't matter though because all this rock will end up on the bottom. I just got my second half of the package and it was so awesome that I put all the first rock on the bottom. It was all great though so don't worry.

 

[CincyGida]

lol - that explains why my hitchhiker hermits are all over the rocks this week (which hasn't happened before in this tank). I hope to have my 2nd shipment early next week.

Thanks for reply!