Brown Algae (maybe)

[Bifferwine]

Have you been testing the water parameters? If you have ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kits, you'd know for sure if it was done cycling or not.

Usually any time you move/transport/disturb live rock you will get some sort of a cycle (like Fatman said). As he said, it's possible that you skipped a cycle altogether, but not likely.

 

[cumminz]

I test my water EVERY day and i have never seen any traces of ammonia or nitrates. Havent checked Nitrates in a week or so.

 

[fatman]

If you are going to do a partial water change soon, then do a simple experiment. Feed about four times what you have been feeding your one fish and check your ammonia level and nitrite levels 12 hours later, and 12 hours after that if the first readings were zero. If either spikes high (above 1.0 ppm) on either set of readings, then your tank did not go through a cycle and as yet has too little bacteria built up in your bio system to handle any significant load of fish being added. That would mean either let the tank cycle on the food just added or do a water change and just continue as you are, but if you add fish add no more than one at a time for a while until your system builds more. If you do not spike readable levels of ammonia or nitrite then your tank has an adequate bio system for additions of maybe two fish at a time, but one at a time would be a wiser move.

 

[cumminz]

Ok, that sounds good. I will do that little experiment soon. I was planning going to a frag swap in a few days on thursday And i hope to add my first coral!

 

[Bifferwine]

It's possible that you either skipped your cycle or it went by so quickly because of the live rock that it didn't show up on your test kit. Or you have faulty test kits, which happens way too frequently, unfortunately. Either way, stocking fish slowly is the way to go to minimize any effects from ammonia and nitrites.

What coral are you planning on adding?

 

[cumminz]

I was wanting a few polyps( I think they are called that) and maybe a torch or frogspawn.

 

[fatman]

I would make sure your system can with stand a load on the bio system before getting any invertebrates. Fish can withstand more organic nutrients in the water than invertebrates. Feed your tank and see what happens or try more fish before getting invertebrates. Invertebrates do not take well to ammonia, nitrite or nitrates.

 

[cumminz]

Well, I just tested water and all at 0 ppm, so i just "fed" my tank and will check back later. Hopefully we are still at 0 ppm all day

 

[Bifferwine]

Polyps is a general term -- usually used to describe a part of a coral colony, or an individual animal. You are probably referring to zoanthids, which the individuals are sometimes referred to as polyps (all corals have polyps, so any coral could technically be called a polyp I guess).

Zoanthids would be a great choice for a starter coral, as would a torch or frogspawn. Good ideas.

 

[RyanG]

Maybe your thinking of Palys?

 

[cumminz]

No it is zoo's aka polyps. I Love the zoanthids, torch's and frogspawn. I did recheck my parameters and all are still at 0