Where is the brown coming from?

[gobucs]

Hello my tank has been clean for the past 3 wks. This morning I woke up to find my tank has gotten extensively brown overnight...... brown on my living sand.... brown on my rock.... brown on my protein skimmer.....I was wondering if anybody could help me with this I am a rather new to this. Plus I have some coral that does'nt look as healthy as it did yesturday. thanx

 

[elfdoctors]

How are your tank readings?
The most common cause of brown discoloration in a young tank is diatoms. These will usually get better on their own. You can be reassured that you are going through a normal (although, ugly) stage in its development. A clean up crew will sometimes help but don't go overboard trying to kill this off.
Corals need pristine water quality. Even if your ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are perfect, there will be other waste products left over from the cycle that are in the water. Many people on these boards recommend waiting until a tank is at least 6 months old before adding corals. I would try to do some large water changes with water that has been mixed at least 24 hours. What kind of corals are these?

 

[beth]

Most like diatoms and nothing to be really concerned about. You should post up your tank info, including the water that you use, water readings, age of tank, filters used, type substrate, type tank.
In the meantime, I'm going to go ahead and move you over to the NEW HOBBYIST forum where you will likely get more reads.
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