Live Rock is brown with little hairs??????

[richo]

I bought about 125 lbs of live rock from an individual who said it was cured. I brought it home and put it in my tank. Then I bought a HO light and within 48 hours I had brown stuff all over my rock!! Today I noticed bubbles on some of the rock and little hairs? My questions is, Is this normal? I have a skimmer whick just started to pull some crap out of the tank and I just don't know if this is right or not. Oh yea one more thing I've been putting a Calcium supplement in the water as per me LFS. Is that okay?
Thanks

 

[dustin_P74]

all sounds normal, just the process of a cycle, you dont need to supplement anything since you dont have anything in there right?

 

[richo]

There is nothing in the tank other than the rock and sand! When should I be able to get some fish, corals and a clean up crew?

 

[dustin_P74]

when your ammonia and nitrite readings are at 0 then you can do a 20-50% water change to bring the nitrates down, then i would give it a week just to make sure everything is stable. after that you can add one fish every three weeks. wen you add the fish you can start to add some of your CUC and i would let your tank mature a couple months before you try to keep any corals in your tank

 

[richo]

will the brown turn to green then purple or will it flake off you should I scrub it off?

 

[cgoodman381]

You could scrub it off before your water change and grab as much as possible. Otherwise your CUC will get it.

 

[yote]

Dustin and Goodmans got you covered on the rock and algae.
Never add anything to the tank that you cant test for.That includes calcium.

 

[Bifferwine]

You don't need to be adding calcium right now. Or if you only have fish and a cleaner crew. Salt mixes will have enough calcium to sustain most things in your tank. If you get corals, then you'll need to start testing and adding calcium.

Even if rock is cured, it will sometimes still go through that cycle. Don't sweat it; it's normal.

Wait until ammonia and nitrites drop to zero, then do water changes to get your nitrates close to zero. Then add ONE fish. Wait three weeks, make sure everything is still at zero, then add a second fish. Wait three weeks...wash, rinse, repeat.

You can add a small cleaner crew at the same time you add your fish, or a little afterwards. Start small, like three or four snails or hermit crabs. Keep those guys alive, then add a few more. If you add too many at once, they'll outcompete each other for food, starve to death, and spike your water parameters. Only add as many as your tank needs.

 

[sen5241b]

If the LR is truly cured in should not cycle. LR causes a cycle when there is dead stuff on it. I've taken a many pounds of LR from the LFS straight home --keeping it wet-- and put it right in my tank with fish and had no cycle. If you wait too long and the living things on the rock die then yes the dead stuff will cause a cycle. This why good LR companies like Tampa Bay salt water ship their LR in water.

Sounds like your LR was not really cured or you left it out of water too long.