Brown dust everywhere

dani22elle

dani22elle

New Member
Hey everyone, I just started my tank this year. I put 20lbs of live rock. I put in a brittle star and a scooter blennie. Everything was fine. I then added some hermit crabs and snails. After a couple of days my tanks was filling up with brown dust and my live rock was losing its color. I put calcium in their every day and it doesnt seem to help. I clean it and it comes back.
Help--My fish dont look to happy about this!
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
WELCOME TO SWF.COM dani22elle
How long has it been set up?? How did you cycle the tank?? What is your water source??
Is your scooter eating fish foods??
Sorry for all the question :)
 
swnewb

swnewb

Member
Diatoms? Probably due to silicates in your water. I would guess you are using tap water? In time it will go away if this is what it is. Start using RO/DI water to prevent additional outbreaks.
 
dani22elle

dani22elle

New Member
my tank has been set up for 3 months. I used regular tap water with some chlorine conditoner. THe only thing I used to cycle it would be the cured live rock. If you are talking about adding any other types of chemicals to cycle it, I didn't add anythin extra.
I feed my blennie spirulina formula(frozen fish food). The people I got it from said if the food doesn't get eatten it could poison the water.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
RO/DI = Reverse Osmosis/ De-ionized... a RO/DI unit purifies the water.
I would also say Diatoms. Diatoms are very common in a new system but sense your tank has been setup 3 months I would agree that your tap water probably has silicates in it.
Using purified water (RO/DI water or Distilled water) will go a LONG way in solving your problem.
Are you running a skimmer??
 
dani22elle

dani22elle

New Member
I currently do not have a skimmer because the people at my quarium store said I didn't need one yet. Are my fish in any harm?
Thanks for the help.
 
paulcoates

paulcoates

Member
you can buy a gallon of distilled water at Walmart for 58 cents. Start doing your water changes and top offs with that. If you yuse that, you wont need the chlorine conditioner anymore
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top