The Puffer Forum

As I continue this aquatic fetish of mine i find that i have more silly questions then even web pages can answer.
So, I have cycled my tank (fishless) all is well I got the brown diatom algae and it did well entire tank turned brown. Got an algae eater he did a good job with some help that is. But I was told (yes by my LFS) that I should have patches of green hairy like algae growing. I have a spot or two thats it. How can I help it grow, Do I need it?

Ok and the other is Live rock. I didn't get the base rock, I got regular Fiji live rock and yes it stunk. How long does it take for things to re grow, we have pink hairy stuff on one rock but that's it. Maybe I'm expecting to much to soon.
Thanks again for listening to the wandering mind of me
Georgia

Did you buy the rock locally or have it shipped in? Was it pre cured?

I just set up my first marine tank, bought my rock locally and had it home and in the tank within 20 minutes of them taking it out of the tank at the store. Within the past 2 weeks I had a huge diatom bloom, algae all over everything, little bugs and creepy crawlies showing up the last 2 days, algae is dying back some and the coraline algae is starting to show through again. I don't think you actually want the hair algaes, etc.. so I'd be happy you don't. My tank is covered with stuff people are telling me is nusiance algae, but I'm having fun watching the different stuff show up.

Now, everyone following my set up said its going very fast for me.. I guess if the rock is out of the water for over an hour things really start dying and it takes longer to cycle and recover from it. So I had little die off and things bounced back really quick.

But the experienced people will be able to tell you how long it takes depending on the way you got your rock, etc. I'm still trying to figure all this out!

If it smelled really bad, it is not fully cured. If you watch your water params closely, you will likely see a small cycle happen. That said, LR often distorts normal cycling readings, so you may not see typical numbers, and that is ok. You do not need, nor do people usually want, hair algae growth, so don't worry on that one. You may see some small bits of growth on your lr within a few weeks. The neat thing about lr is that just when you think you have seen it all grow, something new crops up. After about a year in my tank, a colony of mushrooms and button polyps showed up. Just after, I started getting really neat macro algae. Enjoy the process!