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I received my live rock from LiveAquaria about 10 days ago. I added 45 lbs of Figi rock to a 55 gallon tank with about 3" of aragonite sand. No occupants.

Last night, I was cleaning the dead stuff off the rock with a soft toothbrush, and vacuuming up the debris. Most of the rock looks light brown with spots of green and purple here and there. When I pick up a rock that was half-buried in sand, I was amazed at the color difference of the part that was below the sand. It was MUCH more vivid in color. It also had more coverage of colored, coraline algae than the top half.

I moved the cleaned, attractive rocks around to show off the colors, but this morning they already look MUCH duller.

Is there a fine film of nuisance algae covering the pretty stuff? Or, is something else going on?

Thanks

Last edited by Puffed at 26-Mar-2005 13:42

No worries, your rock will color back up. The coralline algae is just dying off and bleaching because your tank is cycling.








[hr width='40%']Ever since the day you went away
And left me lonely and cold
My life just hasn't been the same
Oh baby no

Shouldn't I see a few hitch hikers by now? I have seen absolutely nothing.

Thanks for responding.

Normally it will take a couple months for the hitchhikers to start "appearing". A lot of them die off to very small populations during the cycle......it takes them awhile to build the population back up to where you notice them. Also, you might try looking at the tank about 2 hours after lights go off at night. A majority of the hitchhikers will come out at night when it is completely dark.....just use a flashlight.

If you want the most hitchhikers to live through the cycle, do water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite down in the lower levels.



[hr width='40%']Ever since the day you went away
And left me lonely and cold
My life just hasn't been the same
Oh baby no

That's the main reason I used Marine Bio-Spira. I was hoping to save as many hitchikers as I could by getting the tank cycled quickly.