Live Rock Cycle. Nitrates???

[tony91lx]

Long Story, but here is the back ground.
I bought about 50 lbs. Of live rock from my LFS, I was told by them that it was already cured. I put the rock in a friends well established sump along with my crushed coral. We left it in the sump for about 2-3 weeks, during this time his skimmer was going like crazy and I took he rock home to a new tank once his skimmer calmed down.
We used the water from his tank and I had to add about 10 gallons of new water to fill the tank.
I had the tank running at home for about a week and am having problems. I have no fish in the tank and am having high Nitrate problems.
Ammonia, Nitrite’s are all zero, Nitrates were off the scale, been doing some water changes and it has come down to about 20 to 40.
Do you think the rock is still curing? What do you think could be the problem?
I have the rock in a 42 hex, with about 2 – 3 inches of CC base.
Remora Skimmer, Canister Filter, and a Wet/Dry.
I am also staring to get some brownish / yellowish growth on top of the CC and some of the live rock. I can take a picture if that will help.
This is my first salt water tank as well.
Thanks,

 

[tony91lx]

Added Photos.

notice the growth on the CC?????

More of the brown/yellow growing on the top of the rock. just started...

General shot of the front of the tank.

Just want to include my other friend.

 

[verde_ad]

It could be a lot of things, but it sounds to me like you tank is just cycling. It is normal in the first few months to get some algae growth. Live rock takes different times to cure, but I would guess that it still has some die off. I get this live rock that has all sorts of stuff growing on it and that takes more like 4-6 weeks to cure. At this point I would just keep doing weekly water changes until the nitrates are were below 20 and then let the tank do that rest of the work. It is hard at the begining, but patience will pay off in the end. I have a really interesting thread about this stuff from another forum if you would like to read it I can e-mail it to you.
Verde_ad1980@yahoo.com

 

[verde_ad]

I just saw the pics and it looks pretty normal to me. That stuff should go away in a few weeks. If you want to help it along you might want to get some snails. I don't actually know what snails work on CC, but I am sure someone on this forum can help.

 

[tony91lx]

Thanks,
NE1 else????

 

[spinner]

Did you use or are you using RO/DI water? Could be a result of the water you used.
Also, as rock is taken from a tank to another tank, it is not uncommon for some die off due to exposure to air.
I wouldn't get too stressed at this point, nothing in your pix looks terribly out of the ordinary.
Spinner

 

[tony91lx]

No, on the RO/DI water.....
I guess I just have to wait..
Thanks,

 

[tony91lx]

With the tank nearing the end of the cycle, can I put a brittle star in the tank with the nitrates around 30, or is it still to high.
I would like to put something in the tank, unfortunaly I have no patients.
I have some fish and inverts, still waiting to come home in my friends sump.