Brown spots?

[phastroh]

Ok so I posted this on my old thread but I decided to make a new one just for this.

They glass is getting spots all over it. They are little brownish spots and are varying in size but overall the size of a pin head.

I scraped them off but I can't get the low low ones without disturbing my substrate and don't want it flying all over.

First of all what is it? (tank is in 8th week of cycle)

Is it better to get a flat style scraper for the bottom areas and not disturb the substrate?

It is also beginning to stick to the rocks and is most noticeable on the dry rock that used to be only white. The dry rock that sits in the back area of the tank seem much less covered if at all. I have 3 powerheads and the flow is great everywhere.

I figured this was part of the cycle like I have read many times.

 

[Waddi]

8th week?? Dude, how are your nitrates and nitrites looking??
I have high Ammonia and high Nitrates but no Nitrites. I hope mine doesnt take that long! :D

 

[phastroh]

I have had the following in there since the 2nd week

2 Starfish, 2 Anemones, 2 Sea Cucumbers, 5 Porcelain Crabs, a ton of Gorilla and Stone Crabs which now there are maybe 2 left since I have been hunting, a bunch of sponge and Gorgs and tons of snails and hermits.

I probably left out something but the water has gotten way better since I removed the dying Red Ridge Sponge and my yellow dying sponge tree and cleaned some rocks.

I have Tampa Bay Saltwater rocks, 80live, 80 dry and 80 sand.

You can see the pix here

https://www.livingreefs.com/my-tampa-bay-saltwater-package-t31885.html

and here

https://www.livingreefs.com/here-some-pix-took-tonight-t32898.html

It is not supposed to take this long but these are not normal circumstances. Next time I just get dry rock I think and start with nothing although I love this live rock a lot but when I get a bigger tank I plan to just take these out and scrub them down.

Probably people will say noooooooooo whhhyyyyyy but if I can't get all the crud out in a year I am. I will one day want a 150-200 gallon tank. I just have to consider the new skimmer, sump and pumps and that isn't cheap. Plus I have to have this 80 down as good as I can for at least a year.

 

[Waddi]

Im still mid way through my cycle and the only time soon that i can make it to the LFS is on Thursday to get my CuC, but i dont really wanna go there and get some crabs, snails and a cleaner shrimp, if they are all gonna die because of the cycle. What you think, will it kill them??

 

[ErinCahir]

Do not add anything to your tank until your cycle is over!

 

[Waddi]

At first i wasnt going to but i see people with things in their tank when it is still cycling, and it makes me wonder! :D
Guess imma wait about a month.

Sorry about hijacking the thread. Back on topic!! :D

 

[phastroh]

Yeah don't put stuff in there until the cycle is over.

If I could go back in time I would not have added anything.

I am pretty sure that is the biggest reason my cycle is still going. I actually can't see it ever ending haha but it will.

I guess it gave me a lot of extra time to mess with the sump and skimmer and better understand them and how the work. Not that it is hard to know just had many different layout and now I am very happy and even more happy I didn't have fish while doing this.

I added a nano powerhead and that has kept anything from gathering in the sump floor.

I have never posted pix of my sump really since I first plumbed it in so I will see if I can snap a few later tonight to show you what it looks like.

Oh and I have no real answer as to why nothing has died in my tank from the water. I can't figure it out. The only thing one person said was that it is because they all came from the gulf where the rock was but that has nothing to do with the water but they did say the gulf water wasn't the best but even so it makes no sense.

All my snails shells are covered in colorful algae and so it almost everything else. I even get sponge growth and out of nowhere these little things that look like coral growing.