substrate

[meisel1]

my 100gal tank has 120lbs of aragonite sand in it, today however i noticed that areas are becoming rust colored, is this algae, should i be worried or just do a small vacum and let cycling take its course. its been running 9 days now and water params are all good.

 

[kraze3]

Sounds like its algae, some people cycle the tankw ith lights off to slow growth, also if you have used tap water your ph could be high also contributing to algae problems. either cutr back on your lighting or let the lights go and when tank is finished you can add your clean up crew

 

[PoukieBear]

It's just brown diatoms, and totaly natural.

Every tank (well...almost every tank) get an algea bloom while it's cycling or jsut after it's cycled.

It will go away when you get a clean up crew. A bunch of snails and crabs will take care of it.

 

[meisel1]

thanks for the replies, i can breath a little easier however i know snails dont do well travelling on aragonite are there any other critters i could use,I already have 6 small hermit crabs and ten snails but they stay mostly on the live rock. Also I was going to do a 10% water change tonight so i could vacum some up or should i just leave it.