Liverocks turn black

[dachkie]

Hi guys, yesterday the unfortunate happened, my 3.5ft old tank flooded as there was a power trip caused by my refugium t5 light, and my chiller was using a gravity feed so all 400l of water flooded the whole house , then as i was trying to save the LS and LR and transfering to my new 5ft i notice some of the LR have black areas, usually places where it was stack and covered by other rocks, what is this black stuff? should i keep these rocks or dump them? not the entire rock black but just small parts of it, by the way these rocks were initially dead rocks from yrs ago and has been running in my 3.5ft for 4 months since i came back into the hobby

[Solo77]

OMG....bet you have hard time clearing and saving your LS. Hope everything is fine by now. Can remove the black stuff? Need more experience reefers to advice liao...

Hi guys, yesterday the unfortunate happened, my 3.5ft old tank flooded as there was a power trip caused by my refugium t5 light, and my chiller was using a gravity feed so all 400l of water flooded the whole house , then as i was trying to save the LS and LR and transfering to my new 5ft i notice some of the LR have black areas, usually places where it was stack and covered by other rocks, what is this black stuff? should i keep these rocks or dump them? not the entire rock black but just small parts of it, by the way these rocks were initially dead rocks from yrs ago and has been running in my 3.5ft for 4 months since i came back into the hobby

[dachkie]

ya, managed to save all my corals, but lost 2 of my mandarin, 1 neon dottyback, 1 firefish, 1 banded brittlestar, a few nasa snails, 2 yasha gobies and shrimp combo and lastly my priced all 8 clapping shrimps.

what i learn from this is never assume the worst wont happen, infact my gravity feed chiller was to be there for just another 2 weeks then , i will start transfering to the new 5ft, but just too bad, lucky now my new tank is a flood proof tank, maximum flood the tank will ever see is 20l of water, all safety checks from sump to tank already in place

[Achilles Tang]

Suggest you do the sniff test on the black patches on the LR.

Could be die-off and your ammonia, nitrites could shoot off the scale and kill your livestock.

You have to cure them seperately again.

[dachkie]

Suggest you do the sniff test on the black patches on the LR.

Could be die-off and your ammonia, nitrites could shoot off the scale and kill your livestock.

You have to cure them seperately again.

ok i just did a search on google, limited info but there is one that says to clean this black stuff off asap as they are dying organisms, if not they will turn the water turgid, bingo on AT's answer thats y AT is DA MAN

[wil_lee76]

a pictures tell a thousand words....

let us see those black black things..... so at least we know in future...

maybe next time...try to put all corals and fishes into a tub...before going in the new tank....

[Victor007]

think it's died off cos i experience that before. i have a rock which is totally black. maybe u can try washing it. but i dun remember it turning back to the original color. i see if i can show u a pic of my black rock.

[ps2freak]

These are dying microorganisms, normally occur by stacking the rocks with little rooms for circulation and ventilation. Scrub off the black spot or face of the rock and you good to go.

[henry@ml]

Hi dachkie,

Those black patches are the result of anaerobic bacteria activity.

This happen as the rocks are stacked close together with minimal water circulating through, creating a low oxygen zone.

In such environment, the oxygen level between rock contacts ranges from very low to zero O2 which favors anaerobic bacteria growth.

Try taking a light sniff and you'll probably faint That rotten egg smell is hydrogen sulphide.

You can get rid of the foul smell fairly quickly by giving it a quick brush under running tap water followed by a saltwater rinse before placing them into your **5footer. The darkened area will take quite a long while to clear off.

**That's assuming your 5 footer already cycled, else do the curing elsewhere

Ensure you have very good water movement circulating the rocks and give a good dose of microorganism.

have fun

[dachkie]

Hi dachkie,

Those black patches are the result of anaerobic bacteria activity.

This happen as the rocks are stacked close together with minimal water circulating through, creating a low oxygen zone.

In such environment, the oxygen level between rock contacts ranges from very low to zero O2 which favors anaerobic bacteria growth.

Try taking a light sniff and you'll probably faint That rotten egg smell is hydrogen sulphide.

You can get rid of the foul smell fairly quickly by giving it a quick brush under running tap water followed by a saltwater rinse before placing them into your **5footer. The darkened area will take quite a long while to clear off.

**That's assuming your 5 footer already cycled, else do the curing elsewhere

Ensure you have very good water movement circulating the rocks and give a good dose of microorganism.

have fun

thanks guys, but as i am leaving for kl and no time to watch the tank, i decided to remove those rocks that have black patches instead, rather then risk it

henry next month gonna have to go ur place get some more probotics to dose, luckily i still had 1 last packet from the last time, so i used it on my 5ft to aid in cycling

[Maverick77]

Hi dachkie,

Those black patches are the result of anaerobic bacteria activity.

This happen as the rocks are stacked close together with minimal water circulating through, creating a low oxygen zone.

In such environment, the oxygen level between rock contacts ranges from very low to zero O2 which favors anaerobic bacteria growth.

Try taking a light sniff and you'll probably faint That rotten egg smell is hydrogen sulphide.

You can get rid of the foul smell fairly quickly by giving it a quick brush under running tap water followed by a saltwater rinse before placing them into your **5footer. The darkened area will take quite a long while to clear off.

**That's assuming your 5 footer already cycled, else do the curing elsewhere

Ensure you have very good water movement circulating the rocks and give a good dose of microorganism.

have fun

Dachkie,

Hope you don't mind me intercepting your thread. Just wish to learn something.

Can I ask if these anaerobic bacteria aid in the removal of nitrate? Cos I thought I read somewhere that those bacteria that convert nitrate to other less harmful stuffs are anaerobic but I wonder if they belong to the same group.