brown stuff!

[antoine]

hello,
i set up a tank about 4 weeks ago and i left it to get run in. last week, i went on vacation and when i arrived home there was algae or some othe brown stuff all over the gravel and dead coral. it looked as though my filter stopped some time when i was away. i removed the dead coral and i got the filter working again. i also raked the sand so the bacteria could be filtered out. i also added some water conditioner. the tank seems to be clear now...but i'm not sure if it is habitable. is there anything i can do to save my tank or do i have to buy new coral and gravel and start all over again with the run-in process?
OdedFehrFC@aol.com

 

[hunterdaddy]

I am sure you will get a ear full hehe
You need to give water quality for one PH, nitrates nitrites and ammonia.
Another thing is you are supposed to get algae. I have had my tank set up for about 2 weeks now and am developing a nice brown algae bloom. I dont know about your filters but if u give water readings someone can help you for sure. Lotsa good people on this site.

 

[mlm]

First you need to SLOW DOWN. If your tank was only 4 weeks old you should not have any coral in it att all. Second you need to get an ammonia and nitrite test kits so you can tell when your cycle is beggining and ending. The brown stuff is diatoms and they are totally normal in a tank that is just about finishing its cycle. BTW what kind of coral did you have and what LFS sold them to you with a new tank?

 

[krux]

He has Dead coral in there, not live stuff.
Aye get a good test kit if you do not already have one. As posted above you should be monitoring ph, amonia, nitrite, and nitrate.
Do you have your tank lights on a timer? While you were gone were they left on the whole time? Maybe your tank is so near the window that the light from there is encouraging an algal bloom.
Test your tank and post the results and you will get some more concrete info I'm sure.

 

[fshhub]

i got astupid question, what exacly are you using for substrate?? gravel or sand, if gravel, what is gravel, IMO, hte only 2 things that should be used in sw are cc(which really is not reccommended any more by most hobbyists(only lfs's) and or sand, nothing esle hould be used at all
and you do NOT want to remove tha bacteria in the substrate, who told you to do that?? that is one of the worst things you can do, remove the bacteria, you want it
please give us more info on your water parameters adn everything about your tank, size, rock?,filters?lights(what type and how much and how long)?, anything in the tank, sand or gravel and how much(depth), belive it or not, any of these things could help with your problems
and i would not add any chemicals at al to a sw tank, for conditioning or otherwise, that in itself could be a problem waiting to be(btw, what did ou use)
more than likely it is diatoms, which are normal at the end of a cycle