micro bubbles on my liverock

[uny2bld]

In order to remove my Wrasse from my RedSea Max, all of the rock had to be removed. I took it out and it got pretty ugly. I had to remove all of it and dig into the sandbed (a dsb at that) to find him.

Long story short, I got him out and put all the rock back within 25 minutes. The next morning, my tank had micro bubbles all over all the rock so I used a turkey baster to blow them off. When I got home from work, the rock was again covered in bubbles. By the time I left for work again this morning, this is what my rock looked like. This tank has not had any problems until I removed the rock, etc.

Can anyone tell me what is going on here? Why is my rock covered like that? I didn't get a chance to do any water testing since I was alreay late for work when I left this morning and I might not get back home (from my second job) until 10 or 11pm; so, I just wanted a heads up on what anyone here thought in the meantime...

Thanks for reading

Oh - the tank has been set up for about 7 months and currently has the following livestock:

Corals: several hairy mushrooms

Fish: yellow Tang (temporary tennant); a neon pseudochromis; Valentini Puffer

Crustaceans: large CBS and 12 - 14 hermits (various species)

Snails: (3) Nassarius snails; (7) eyhole limpets; (4) nerites and (1) Turbo snail

 

[uny2bld]

sorry, it would not let me post a picture...

 

[Jarrett]

I noticed this in my tank when i transferd everything over from my 45 gallon, for me it was a mini cycle. which you could of caused by stirring everything up. if not a mini cycle it might be algae, cyno to be more specific. but i am leaning more towards a mini cycle because you took everything out and disturbed your dsb

 

[JimmyR1rider]

Someone else had that issue with bubbles on their rock and KathyC pointed out it's usually a sign of algae forming and is a sign that water quality may be a little off.


I would just do heavy water changes and monitor the quality via tests in the next week and see if it clears up.

Are you running gfo? If not this would be a good time to start(anytime is a good time).

Good luck

 

[uny2bld]

Someone else had that issue with bubbles on their rock and KathyC pointed out it's usually a sign of algae forming and is a sign that water quality may be a little off.


I would just do heavy water changes and monitor the quality via tests in the next week and see if it clears up.

Are you running gfo? If not this would be a good time to start(anytime is a good time).

Good luck

Sounds good thankyou. I'm not running gfo and my params have always been next to perfect in this tank but I don't have much of a bioload...

I think the algae thing is right on the money because I noticed brown algae all over the glass and that isn't normal for this tank.

I know that the bubbles are some kind of gas but I'm curious as to what gas it is... I will start running GFO right away and plan to test my water when I get home tonight.

I'm just amazed how this whole thing was like a light switch getting flipped... Everything was great then i stirred the sand and moved the liverock and the tank looks terrible now...

thanks for the advice

 

[uny2bld]

Ok, I just amde a huge nub mistake... :smash: I woke up early (a little before 7am) and walked out in the kitchen to see my tank and found the lights ON!!! wow - do I feel stupid now. they are set to go on at 8:30am so I knew something was wrong.

I found that the timer had been turned off and the lights had just been on all week long... I put in 70 hours this week and haven't noticed the lighting since it's supposed to be on when i am home and awake...
:banghead:

 

[rambler67]

I would say its the start of some kind of algae considering you disturbed the sand bed and all the rock. I would put some fresh carbon and gfo in and hope it doesnt get too bad.

 

[JimmyR1rider]

Ok, I just amde a huge nub mistake... :smash: I woke up early (a little before 7am) and walked out in the kitchen to see my tank and found the lights ON!!! wow - do I feel stupid now. they are set to go on at 8:30am so I knew something was wrong.

I found that the timer had been turned off and the lights had just been on all week long... I put in 70 hours this week and haven't noticed the lighting since it's supposed to be on when i am home and awake...
:banghead:

Don't panic. Just reset everything to where your lighting cycle will be back to normal. Just like when people try to cut back their lighting cycle to cure algae(doesnt work algae will come right back if problem isn't remedied) it will be like you doing the same thing. Any algae that grew since the extra light needed that much light to thrive, when you cut it back to normal it won't have the light it needs to survive and you're original amount of what could be diatoms if you stirred up your sandbed and started a mini cycle since you said it was brown will be what survives. If it is diatoms it will go away with water changes just like when you first started the tank and you had the original bloom, just keep up on maintenance and it wil cycle through it.

Go to your LFS and buy a TLF phos ban reactor, they're cheap, get some gfo and as stated in my last post start running it. I would do 25% water changes a few times a week and see if it starts to clear up.

 

[uny2bld]

Don't panic. Just reset everything to where your lighting cycle will be back to normal. Just like when people try to cut back their lighting cycle to cure algae(doesnt work algae will come right back if problem isn't remedied) it will be like you doing the same thing. Any algae that grew since the extra light needed that much light to thrive, when you cut it back to normal it won't have the light it needs to survive and you're original amount of what could be diatoms if you stirred up your sandbed and started a mini cycle since you said it was brown will be what survives. If it is diatoms it will go away with water changes just like when you first started the tank and you had the original bloom, just keep up on maintenance and it wil cycle through it.

Go to your LFS and buy a TLF phos ban reactor, they're cheap, get some gfo and as stated in my last post start running it. I would do 25% water changes a few times a week and see if it starts to clear up.

Thanks, I added activated carbon (from Bulk Reef Supply) and the lighting has been fixed for a couple days now... I haven't had a chance to get any gfo but plan to soon... The tank already looks much better and my fish are all doing good so I'm relieved for the time being...

 

[JimmyR1rider]

Thanks, I added activated carbon (from Bulk Reef Supply) and the lighting has been fixed for a couple days now... I haven't had a chance to get any gfo but plan to soon... The tank already looks much better and my fish are all doing good so I'm relieved for the time being...

Good to hear. You definatley want to get gfo going though. Carbon polishes the water but it doesn't remove phosphate which is the main cause of algaes. Get the gfo going and I think you'll notice an even biggr change.

Good to hear it's getting better