live rock turning brown

[ninjatech]

Hi All my liverock is turning brown. What do i do. I have my tank for about 3 months...What I do is scrub the rock with a tooth brush is this good? Please help need.. evreyone's expertise.

Also my LFS is trying to sell me a sand siphon ..he showed me how to use it at the store. Based on what I saw it looks like the sand is being stirred like crazy..Someone told me never to do that with your sand...thanks guys

 

[matt 76]

Most likely you are going through an algae cycle.

 

[Sk8r]

Don't bother with the toothbrush unless algae gets real long. Ideally, don't intervene with hands in the tank (our hand oils aren't beneficial to the tank chemistry.)

It IS time to test the water: run down the 1) temperature, 2) salinity 3) alkalinity, and if you aim for stony coral, 4) the calcium and 5) the magnesium. Check the nitrate (keep it lower than 20 if you can) and the phosphate---if you have green algae taking over the dt, that's too much phosphate, no matter what the tests read (algae obscures the test results).
Your brown is likely a phase. Your tank may go through many on its way to maturity, but keeping an eye on the water chemistry will get you to good places with minimal fuss involved in keeping it. The way this works---you set a good balance (as in my sig line parameters) and the balance keeps steady for weeks on end: if the mag stays up at 1300, the alk behaves. Kind of magical, that way, and once you get that going, life becomes much easier.

 

[Saltine]

Hi All my liverock is turning brown. What do i do. I have my tank for about 3 months...What I do is scrub the rock with a tooth brush is this good? Please help need.. evreyone's expertise.

Also my LFS is trying to sell me a sand siphon ..he showed me how to use it at the store. Based on what I saw it looks like the sand is being stirred like crazy..Someone told me never to do that with your sand...thanks guys

I'd siphon your sand if you don't have anything sifting it for you like sea cucumbers, starfish etc. It also makes it much easier to do water changes imo, really easy to get a good siphon.

Salt

 

[chimmike]

What are your water parameters and water source?

flow?

 

[CStrickland]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2548067