My beautiful Aragonite turned in this

hi, i just came home from a 3 day vacation and found my beautiful white aragonite looking like this.



please tell me this is normal. if so, when will this go away... does this have anything to do with the tank being cycled'

 

always a nice suprise isn't it! that is a diatom outbreak on your gravel. how old is your tank? mine is 3 months now and my sand is finally starting to return to its normal off white color. diatoms feed on phosphates and silicates mostly, and usually bloom in the initial phases of cycling a tank, or with overfeeding and/or anerobic areas {where there is no current to remove excess nutrient build up}

 

thanks for your reply.. my tank is just 1 month old.... so, understanding what you are saying, this doesnt mean my tank has already cycled, right'

it is definately no good surprise. it is also growing on all my live roch and my glass...

 

perfectly normal, should go away within one or two more months, give or take. orale vato

 

It too will pass...

Get some hemits, they will help clean it up.

 

Took about six weeks for the diatoms to go away, then we got a red algae bloom, a green algae bloom, and now the substrate is beautiful almost 5 months now...The tank is nearly encrusted with coralline algae at this point.
All part of the process...I know we were freaked when it starting happening.8)

 

It will go away and things will start looking better.

 

i got 3 red legged hermits in my 44 gal for the same thing, they started to clean it up as soon as they were put in the tank. 2.5 wks later almost pure white sand.

 

Welcome to the club chap! I've got the same thing happening in my tank... right now...

 

Aren't micro-organisms great?!