Newby questions

[boilermaker]

Hi! I am so NEW to this and I have a lot of questions. Please don't anyone die from laughing at my stupidity. I have a brand new 55 gal tank with 45 pounds of lr. It's about a week old. I'm trying to cycle my tank with just the lr -- I was told I could do this (??) I've got brown algae growing (is that OK? What do I do about it?) But my real question is this. My lr looks like it needs a shave -- it's got little red and green "hairs" all over it. What is this stuff??

 

[jim672]

Emptynestor,
Welcome to the board! There are NO stupid questions!!! Quite the contrary, you were very astute to know enough to ask some questions.
It is possible to cycle a tank with just LR if the rock has enough dead matter on/in it. (You might have cycled more quickly if place a cocktail shrimp in your tank.) The algea you mention, though, is a normal phase of cycling so it sounds as if you've already started! If you don't already have one, purchase a test kit so you can determine the levels of ammonia, nitrates and nitrites. When those are at 0, you're done and much of that algea should be gone, too!!
Good luck and keep on asking questions!
Jim

 

[infinsable]

What helped me out alot was doing a search on this board, It brings up alot of answers to questions already asked , alot of useful info there! Give it a try, Oh yea Welcome !!!!