Diatoms? Am I doing anything wrong curing rock?

[Spartanwarrior]

Hey,

So curing for exactly a month now. I think I've reached a diatom bloom in one of my containers. Brown water, brown "dust" over all of the rock.

Is this a normal stage during curing live rock? I've got plenty of flow, saltwater, 80 degree temp, and running phosban on this one. No light. Change the water every 10 days or so. Haven't even bothered checking any levels.
I ask because my other container has zero brown to it, and the ammonia levels are pretty low/nonexistent already. The 2nd container is running a HOB with carbon and biomax.

I know this can take time so not looking for quick fixes. Just want some confirmation that this is normal.

Thanks all.

 

[IBernE]

yea I think so because the same thing happened to me when I cured my pukani. Yellow, light brownish rocks and water. Just test your ammonia nitrite and nitrate so you get an idea when its ready. I also cured mine indoors so I didn't use a heater (74+ degrees) took me around 6 weeks to have 0 ammonia 0 nitrite. I didn't use any carbon or phosban. Why are you using that?

 

[Rookie2reef]

use Dr tims bacteria

 

[Spartanwarrior]

Phosban is to remove the dead matter/phosphates a bit quicker than just water changes. Just an extra step seeing as I had extra phosban laying around.
When did you notice the diatoms to disappear? Same time as levels dropped or way before?

 

[Spartanwarrior]

I have Dr Tims for the cycle process for in the tank. Didn't think that went in the curing step...could I be wrong? Thought they were 2 different processes. I guess the bacteria could consume the dead matter quicker. I'll try anything.

 

[IBernE]

Well I never did water changes. I had been curing the rock since early November and I didn?t plan to put it in until literally this weekend because I was going to have a three day weekend and I planned on redoing my whole aquascape. I had an ich issue On my display, started a quarantine tank, quarantine tank leaked so I had to put my fish back in the display. Since I had already broken down my rocks to catch all my fish and treat them I figured heck, I?ll throw in the new rock also without any water changes. My nitrates were around 100 on the curing container lol. But as of yesterday my nitrates are 0 on my display my phosphates DID go up. There at .12 I had them at .03 right before all the trouble started. And I didn?t use anything at all. No bacteria additives no phosphate remover no carbon, not even a heater lol. Just flow a dark container inside another tank stand so it was pitch black. Funny the rock still got Yellow/brown.