Larry,
A quarantine tank is a very good idea. Yes, you do need a food source to keep the
bacteria active in your live rock. You could accomplish this by keeping a few
inexpensive fish in your Q tank, such as chromis.
The reddish stuff on your sand is probably cyanobacteria (aka red slime). It appears
in red and green varieties. Or it could be diatoms, or a combination of both. If you
have only a thin layer of sand, the easiset thing to do is just stir it up manually
every now and then. I do this in my tank after I finish scraping the diatoms off the
glass, using the long handle of my scraper. Another good thing to do regularly is to
take an ordinary plastic turkey baster and blast off any detritus that collects on
your reef structure, to keep unwanted growth off the rock.
Nancy
>Subject: quarantine tank
>From: "Larry J. Geguzis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 00:43:12 -0400
>
>Hi,
>I'd like to keep a 29 gal marine tank going to phase new purchases into my
>125 gal reef. The 29 gal currently had a large tang "holding" in it for 2+
>weeks (until I could trade him for store credit at the LFS) and he did very
>well. The tank just has 8-10 lbs of live rock, a coupla snails and a tiny
>hermit crab. It only has a small freshwater filter hung on it for
>circulation, a heater and a regular freshwater hood with a single
>florescent light (on 24x7). There are a couple of tiny (thumbnail size)
>soft corals growing here and there. Questions: What do I need to do to
>keep the rock "live". Do I have to "feed" it? If so, what? Should I put any
>more critters in there to keep it cycled? Again, this is not a show tank, I
>just want it there to keep new purchases for a while after purchase so as
>not to bring "undesirable" elements i.e. disease, into the reef tank.
> Different issue, the reef tank live sand (it's just a dusting of
>sand) is developing a fine carpet of light brown or reddish stuff (algae?).
>Normal, or cause for some action. If action, what do I do next?
>
>TIA,
>Larry aka Newbie
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