Tank Failing???

[dad&son]

Tank has cycled and returned to normal water paramaters are all good amm 0ppm trite 0 ppm trate .5ppm ph 8.0. When I came home from work today in several areas of my LR look as though they have become rust stained. I would estimate approx 1/3 of the 70 lbs of live rock has turned this color .I have about 100w of light on it 3 powerheads and a filter . the light is 65k coral life bulbs. The only 2 things I have added to the tank after the cycle was a pH buffer( 4 teaspoons over 4 days) since it had dropped during my cycle and I also added 20mL of seachem reef complete. This tank was cycled with cured live rock. My second dilema is I purchased some more live rock last night for my refugium when I added the rock to my tank while the substrate in the refugium settle. I saw what I have now IDed as a Large red serpant star come out of the rock. this poor guy had no acclimation time what so ever what are the chances of his survival. cna the staining on my reef actually be rust now showing all of a sudden or do I need to feed the live rock.I am so LOST

 

[smarls]

OK, I very much doubt it is rust...unless you ahve been adding metal items to your tank!
I would guess (and this is without much detail on your tank) that it is probably a cyno outbreak (cyno bacteria) or a diatom outbreak. You can search those terms using the tool bar and it will give you a better idea...but it is not anything to get upset about! Your tank is not failing.
This is fairly common in new tanks (actually, common in established tanks when things get out of whack). You can probably blow it off with a turkey baster and/or a powerhead. Best idea is to syphon it out straight from the rock using some tubing, and do a partial water change.
Although your tank has cycled, it is still very immature, and it will take some time for organisms to get to stasis. Algae may be caused by high phosphates (are you using tap water?), overfeeding (although it doesn't sound like you have anything to feed) or it could be as simple as you should start adding a clean up crew of snails.
Either way, first step would be to syphon out the algae, and do a water change.
As for the star (are you sure it wasn't the leg of a bristle worm?), inverts are generally very sensitive to salinity changes, and require long periods of time to acclimatize.
However, with a hitchhiker, there is not much you can do, because you don't know they are there...if he made it this far, then he might survive this as well! If he lives, then it is a bonus, if not, well, you didn't intentionally put him in your tank.
I think, depending on what you want to do with your tank, your lighting is pretty low (100 watts over a 55 gallon). This is OK for fish, but it will not be enough for coral.
HTH
Stewart

 

[dad&son]

Thanks Stewart for the reply It was definatley a whole live serpant star no doubt about it . will see what happens when I try and blow off LR with PH

 

[dad&son]

Tried the power head it did nothing and from what I have read On cyno it is more reddish in color this is brownish coppery coloring to it
Any i

 

[dad&son]

Tried the power head it did nothing and from what I have read On cyno it is more reddish in color this is brownish coppery coloring to it
Any ideas??

 

[jg303030]

I had the same stuff when I started my tank. I bought 3 turbo snails, and turned my lights off for a day and they took care of a lot of it. 2 weeks later it is now gone. Just buy some of the cleaner crew. I have the 3 snails, 3 emerald crabs, and 10-15 hermit crabs. I have a 75 gallon and they do the job for now.

 

[dad&son]

Thank I have already put in the order for the cleaning crewSo I guess we will see what happens . Also if anyone knows what is the best thing plant wise and substrate wise to put in a refugium.

 

[alohami]

I am currently experiencing the same thing on my rock. I also think it is diatoms. It is mostly on the rock, but if you look closely my sand has a light brownish cast to it too. My cycle is nearly finished, so I was kind of expecting it.
I haven't been running my lights at all except for maybe an hour at night just to look at the tank so I don't think that contributed to it. Seems to just be a normal thing at the end of a cycle.
Bring on the cleaning crew!!!

p.s. Good luck with your star. I hope he makes it! Keep us posted.

 

[steelrain]

it is absolutly diatoms, all new tanks go through this one of many "stages"..
Just let it run it course, a clean up crew will help the appearance.
Also, you should only be using RO/DI water for change/top off, else you my be feeding the problem..
as for the star, I have found new hitchhikers(peanut worm, astera star(sp?) sponges, snails ) popping up every day since my tank has finished the cycle around a week ago .
I'm sure it will survive
HTH

 

[sammiefish]

diatoms like steelrain said... dont sweat it... normal in the scheme of your tank maturing... you must be doing everything right.

 

[ophiura]

Originally posted by dad&son
Thanks Stewart for the reply It was definatley a whole live serpant star no doubt about it . will see what happens when I try and blow off LR with PH
Just let it be...many people are lucky enough to get them as hitch hikers and they do OK. Some brittlestars do OK and some don't. But if you figure they survived being in LR that is shipped damp and made it that far....maybe it will be fine!

 

[dad&son]

Actually I had been transporting the live rock from the store in 5 gallon buckets with just enough water to keep them covered so at most he might of had a temp drop between here and the LFS ,and then of course any difference within our tanks as well bu It was one of the last I put in and it was under water the whole time and yes its saltwater from the same tank that I got the LR from. Chances getting better??? hopefully

 

[ophiura]

Yes, but unless you bought the rock from a tank that had critters put in it (and most stores just put their LR in a tank of LR), it was shipped pretty dry from its point of origin (or whatever kind of rock it was). Your care from the LFS to home certainly helped it too. So I am pretty confident about it!

 

[dad&son]

Iwill try and keep everyone posted what should I be feeding him

 

[ophiura]

Well, it should be interested in nearly anything that smells - you should see the arms waving about a bit when there is food. If you can get closer to it you can try shrimp pellets or a bit of shrimp on a stick (yum!).
Watch for the arms starting to break off, which would be a sign of trouble.

 

[dad&son]

to be honest I havent seen him since he crawled out of the one rock and into the reef but hes not on my floor so I am pretty sure he is just hiding I am going to turn the tanklights off and try putting in a small piece of shrimp and see what happens

 

[dad&son]

Just an update on The red serpant starfish He is alive and kicking hes holed up in and under a piece of live rock I cant really get him to come out volantarily and I dont want to force him.( I just want to see what type of condition he is in ) are the also a striped kind of red serpant type starfish. I also tried feeding him left two small pieces of shrimp in tank for 2 days nobody touched it will he possibly eat flake food