What happened to my live rock?

[Frozenguy]

I have had live rock curing in a couple 20 gal tanks for about 10 days now.

I put it all into my main 80 gallon tank along with two different bags of live sand. Nature's Ocean and Ocean Direct. I did NOT use the bio magnet clarifier included with Ocean Direct.

When I transferred the rock, it looked the same as the day I put it in. Rocky with green pink and red colors.

Now over night as my water cleared, the rocks are left covered in either a powdery silt or some type of growth or both.

Before:

After (over night):

 

[A sea K]

If it looks like powdery silt I would guess you added sand as well and the insueing dust storm settled out overnight leaving a dusted appearance?

 

[Frozenguy]

If it looks like powdery silt I would guess you added sand as well and the insueing dust storm settled out overnight leaving a dusted appearance?

Ok yeah I hope it's just a powdery silt. I did add sand. Well sand was the first thing I added, then some water and then rock then more water.

Thanks for the response!

 

[Frozenguy]

Upon closer inspection, visual and tactile, it appears to be an algae that has collected a ton of dust. Will this have an effect on the colors?

My cycling parameters are 0 ammonia, 1 ppm nitrites, and 5 ppm nitrates.

Once the nitrites hit 0 I can add my CUC right?

I'll be drilling some rock pieces to use with pvc so i need to do that before getting the CUC anyways.

 

[aponok]

It may be diatomic algae. It looks like a cycling tank, addition of live rock, and possibly silicates introduced from sand may be the contributing factors. The link below offers a deeper explanation.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/algaecontrol/a/aa091100.htm

 

[alf1096]

I would say part of the cycle. I would not worry.