new here and tons of questions lol

[bigwrench]

hey everyone i just found the site and thought it would be a great place to find information and meet some fellow saltwater enthusiasts my saltwater tank has been up about 2 months now and i have one phillipine yellow tang, 4 damsels and a tomatoe clown and one large piece of live rock my rock started out white and has in the last couple days started turning orange and i was wondering if maybe i am doing something wrong i am totally new to this and am basically shooting from the hip have 4 local pet stores that all tell me 4 different answers to my questions or make 4 different suggestions as they want to all sell me something different arghhhhhhhhh lol hope someone has an idea whats going on with the rock and all suggestions would be appreciated

 

[stupid_naso]

I don't think you're doing anything wrong. I think it's the diatom that's start growing (good thing). Do you see brown/ orange stuff growing on your glass too? I had the same experience after about couple of weeks after I setup my tank. Well what I did was, I got a sally lightfoot to take care of it. The next day, the orange stuff is all gone. Well that's what I know, let's see what the others say about this.
stupid_naso

 

[lu]

Hi Bigwrench.
I had that happen to my tank too (just got it for x-mas). Mine is about a month old now and after a couple of weeks I started getting that brown stuff.......everywhere. I think it's called a diatom bloom and it's algae.....don't worry, it's ok. If you have any algae eaters (snails )they'll get rid of it for you. And your rock should start turning color. That means it's alive and growing stuff on it.

 

[bigeyedfish]

Yeah nothing sounds bad so far. Dont worry about the diatoms. My best suggestion is to get a decent sized powerhead to increase water movement in your tank. i did this along with adding some snails and my bloom came and then disappeared very fast! i mean there's no brown algae to be seen on the sand or glass, a week before it was everywhere! Good Luck and welcome to the board. i'm prety new myself and you wouldnt believe what i've learned so far.

 

[the claw]

Patience is the key! Your bloom will leave as fast as it came, as soon as all of the silicates are gone. If you want to add an abalone,snails, or a good crab or two, they will happily eat the stuff for you, and make your tank even more interesting.