Help with live sand!

[TheFlames]

There seems to be a copper looking growth on the top layer on my live sand, what is it?

[pstroh]

Even though the bag says LS is ready for fish it is not. There is die off in the bag which causes ammonia levels to rise, thus, you still need to go through the nitrification process. Granted it should go a lot quicker with the LS. You should take about 2 weeks. Let the tank cycle for a week then do a water change and let it cycle for another week. Test your water before adding anything. Also, if you are using tap water you could very well have have copper in the tank. You can purchase a copper test kit and some RO/DI fresh or saltwater from you LFS. Good luck.

[Ninong]

There seems to be a copper looking growth on the top layer on my live sand, what is it?

Is this your 14-gal tank that you just set up a week ago?

The "copper-looking growth" might be diatoms. It's certainly not copper. If you want to test for copper, go right ahead, but if you have a significant amount of copper in your tank, then discard all of the sand and/or live rock in your tank and start all over again with new sand and new live rock after you have very thoroughly cleaned out the tank. It is extremely unlikely that this is your problem. Copper in the tank doesn't show up as "copper-looking growth" on the sand bed.

I'm not sure what you mean by "live sand" but that's really not an issue in answering your question.

[TheFlames]

yes it seems to be brown diatoms thanks!