need help maybe

lwaxman · #1 01/10/2008, 03:19 AM

so I did a water change and poured in the water too fast and a bunch of live sand went all over the place. it got on the live rock and on some of the rock it fell on the live rock turned brown, almost a very dark gold. what is going on here. and should i stop this, and how. thanks

29 gallon
two filters
20 lb lr
15 lb ls
2 damsels
two crabs, sally foot and green emerald.
1 snail.

thanks again

ahullsb · #2 01/10/2008, 03:49 AM

First of all, blow it back off the rocks. It might not be a problem, but if you kicked up too much sand, it could have released bad things into the tank. You are probably alright though. Just keep an eye on things and test your water for the next few days to be on the safe side. How long has the tank been up? If the sandbed is still new it might not be much of a problem at all.

lwaxman · #3 01/10/2008, 03:51 AM

the tank has been going for a little more than 2 weeks

super stooge · #4 01/10/2008, 04:21 AM

after 2 weeks u shouldnt really have anything to horribly toxic in ur sb, id get the sand of ur rocks and monitor ur lvl's closely for a while and react to any changes u see. this shouldnt affect u to much this early on but in the future try to disturb ur sand bed as little as possible when u pour in ur water

dileggi · #5 01/10/2008, 10:09 AM

I would also pretty much agree with everyone. Try blowing all the sand off the rocks with a turkey baster and possibly direct your power heads towards the rocks as well to help get anything you may have missed.

I'm guessing if the tank has only been up for two weeks, you were certainly still cycling, so I'm sure you didn't hurt anything as there probably wasn't anything to hurt. I'm thinking worst case scenario is a bit more cycle time may have been added by the disturbance of the substrate.

But, does anyone else know...if the tank was still cycling and only two weeks old, could their have been anything built up in the sandbed already?

Sk8r · #6 01/10/2008, 10:29 AM

Easier to learn now rather than later!

lwaxman · #7 01/10/2008, 01:02 PM

why did it turn the rocks brown

phenom5 · #8 01/10/2008, 01:09 PM

Quote:

why did it turn the rocks brown

I would guess diatoms. No big deal, normal for a new tank.

lwaxman · #9 01/10/2008, 02:33 PM

so the rocks are going to turn a different color other than brown. so i should not worry

dileggi · #10 01/10/2008, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by lwaxman
so the rocks are going to turn a different color other than brown. so i should not worry

No, at this point, if you are still cycling, I would not worry at all. Even when you're done cycling..probably around the 2-4 month mark, you'll probably have some form of cyano or diatom outbreak again as this is a normal cycle in a new tank. I'm just about done battling mine.

Again, if nothing is in the tank yet, you didn't harm anything...and if anything was in the tank, and it's still cycling, chances are good that it probably wouldn't have lived through the cycle. So, I really don't think you harmed anything at all.

If anything, this was probably the best time for this to happen

ahullsb · #11 01/10/2008, 07:05 PM

Your rocks will most likely turn purple in the future, if you are doing everything right