# What happened to my tank?!



## grahamo (Dec 28, 2014)

Hi all,

First time fish owner here, so no idea if this is something to be expected at some point or not, but just came home from work and immediately noticed my tank looks a right mess, there is now all of a sudden brownish staining allover the sand, inside of the tank and allover the rocks, that was not there yesterday, and hasnt been there before.

Tank was fishless cycled correctly, and has been up and running with 9 mbuna cichlids in there for around 6 weeks now, with weekly 40% WC, and the only thing thats changed recently is I cleaned out the filter last weekend in old tank water, and replaced the carbon media.

What is are of this brownish stains and how do I get rid it! Hope it's nothing to worry about, but appreciate any advice.

Here's some pics below, up until today the rocks have always been there natural colour and the sand has been completely white, and the tank has looked brilliant clean:


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

It's diatoms, it's completely normal in a newly set up tank don't worry.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Further it will go away on it's own after several months and if it bothers you in the meantime it rubs off easily.


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## grahamo (Dec 28, 2014)

Thanks guys!

Interestingly on a side note, I just tested my tank parameters, and my PH is tetsing at 8.2, where it normally tests at 7.4 consistently... Could this have impacted it?

I also added a low powered airpump last weekend to the tank, could that have buffered the PH?

There is of course the chance that I am misreading it due to relying on the evening electric lighting, and not daylight and the shades of brown on the testing kit being so similar, however, I'm not sure if this is the case as my eyes are pretty good and I've tested using the evening lighting available in the same spot before and always concluded that it was 7.4...


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

No you are going to get diatoms pretty much no matter what.


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## skurj (Oct 30, 2011)

Just let it be, it will pass. Likely one day months from now you will see this thread.. look over at your tank and wonder when did it go away..


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