I have artificial rock in my tank. They are white. Tank is about a month old. Started turning red today. I am dosing Red Sea trace elements and Red Sea foundation elements. Do you think the iron from the trace is turning the rock colors?
White rocks turning red
- Thread starter mixeras
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It could be coralline algae, cyanobacteria, dinoflagellates, diatoms, red/brown algae...
There are a lot of things that could make the rocks red that likely have nothing to do with iron.
Can you share pictures for a better ID?
It's algae and you're gonna see a lot more of it.
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Most likely, this is due to organisms growing on the rock rather than being related to iron staining.
My guess is that it is impossible in the long-term in a reef tank to keep rocks looking pristine and white (not sure if that is what you want; I certainly would not want it myself).
The green is definitely algae, probably film algae or the start of hair algae. The pink/red/brown could be any or a combination of several things: coralline algae, diatoms, dinoflagellates, red/brown algae, etc.
Your tank is sure to go through a stage of "uglies" while these organisms struggle against each other for nutrient consumption.
I had it in my other tank as well just seem to come on earlier and stronger here. Any tips on keeping the glass clean or slowing down the algae production on the glass
Really the biggest thing is time, patience, CUC and water changes. Starting with that dry rock, your tank needs time to develop it's biological filtration. Until that rock matures and you have corals or macro algae to absorb nutrients, you will have algae breakouts like that. It may seem to come in waves while you fine tune your tanks' export methods. For example, I had problems with algae so I started dosing nopox. Between the dosing, coral growth, and skimming, I stripped too many nutrients out and caused different problems and needed quit dosing nopox. The amount of nutrient import/export needed to keep that ugliness in check will need to be modified as you add fish, inverts, and coral. Especially once the coral starts growing.
This is film algae and in alignment with a maturing and cycling tank. Being tank is one month of age, you can reduce white intensity slightly and add a few snails such as:
Turbo grazer
astrea
cerith
nerite
Nassarius (for the sand)
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No! Nothing needs to be dosed. You're throwing away money. All you need is a regular maintenance schedule including water changes, a good cuc, and patience
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And a magnetic algae scraperNo! Nothing needs to be dosed. You're throwing away money. All you need is a regular maintenance schedule including water changes, a good cuc, and patience
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