Bright Red/Maroon - Appeared out of the Blue?

[Martin Cox]

Anyone have any idea what this could be? Im in the early stages of a new set-up, there is nothing in there yet accept live rock and filter.

Out of the Blue (ironic ;)) this maroon colour has appeared on some of my rock? It almost looks like felt tip spots/marks, and no I dont have any kids in the house!! haha!!

Any ideas what it is?

Help!!!!

Thanks in Advance

MC

[chrisfont23]

Most likely cyano.

[Reefing Madness]

One question for you. Does it easily wipe off? If so, your looking at Cyanobacteria, bad thing to have. If it does not wipe off easily it looks like the start of Red Coralline Algea, which is a good thing to have.
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/dia...slimealgae.htm

[chrisfont23]

Anyone have any idea what this could be? Im in the early stages of a new set-up, there is nothing in there yet accept live rock and filter.
MC

Operative sentence bolded. New tank needs to run it's course. Don't fret it. Happened to mine and I am about a year in. If you are really worried, the best way to deal with cyano is to lower N03 / PO4 through water changes, use RO/DI water and of course, making sure your flow is adequate. I would also recommend siphoning it off with some airline tubing. If you aren't into the manual labor, try a tiger tail sea cucumber. And finally, there's always the chemical route (Chemi Clean or something like that). The latter two suggestions I would not do until your tank is fully established. For now water changes and siphoning it are adequate measures.

[trustinno1]

looks like coraline to me i have some like that

[chrisfont23]

Anyone have any idea what this could be? Im in the early stages of a new set-up, there is nothing in there yet accept live rock and filter.

Out of the Blue (ironic ;)) this maroon colour has appeared on some of my rock? It almost looks like felt tip spots/marks, and no I dont have any kids in the house!! haha!!

Any ideas what it is?

Help!!!!

Thanks in Advance

MC

Also, just my 2 cents - in picture 2 that coraline speckled rock on the top looks like an accident waiting to happen. If it's not secured, you might want to do so.

[Martin Cox]

One question for you. Does it easily wipe off? If so, your looking at Cyanobacteria, bad thing to have. If it does not wipe off easily it looks like the start of Red Coralline Algea, which is a good thing to have.
Red Slime Algae (Cyanobacteria) - Description, causes and cures for Red Slime Algae (Cyanobacteria)

It easily wipes off, just put my finger over it and off it come.

Now there are conflicting views as what to do?

should I wipe it off then do a water change? which I dont mind doing? Leave it until my tank has cycled and then let a clean up crew do some work, Im a bit confussed what to do next,


Thanks again for all the replies.

[Original Fin]

If it's only on one rock, and you can remove it, do so, and rinse the slime off with tank water, or RO water.To keep it from coming back, direct more flow to that area. As nutrients decrease with tank maturity, it will be much less prevalent.

[Martin Cox]

Its mainly on one rock, but it has moved a little to another.

I have two powerheads in the tanks, and a temp small internal filter (see the picture)

By Weekend, My Deltec Skimmer and a Tetratec External Filter will have arrived so I will be taking the internal filter out and replacing it with these two instead.

Shall I wait until weekend, do a partial water change, clean off the rock and remove any clumps, and let everything run?

Or

Shall I just take out the internal filter, put on the skimmer and External Filter and let nature run its course (no water change or clean)?

Or

Any other suggestions?

Im still in the cycle stage the tank set up is only a week and a half......

[Original Fin]

At this early stage of the game, It's normal, and I'd just leave it alone. After 6-8 weeks have passed, (without the addition of any livestock) the nitrogen cycle will have run it's full course, and the biological filter (that is your rock and sand substrate) will have established itself. This is the time to add the clean up crew of your choice, then wait some more before adding your first fish.

The next trick is not to overload that biofilter with livestock. It's like a teeter totter. All the different types of nitrifying bacteria populations are living in balance with what the tank currently provides it in the way of nutrients. Adding or taking away those source nutrients causes the see saw to tip to one end. Small incremental changes are less aparent, and may not show any appreciable spikes in Ammonia and Nitrites, but they are there, it's just that the existing bio filter is able to assimilate these small changes fairly rapidly. You still need to give it time to reach equilibrium before adding more fish.
Dump several fish in at once, and that could overload the biofilter, causing a mini-cycle, or full on crash.

You're also going to get a diatom bloom durring this cycling stage. That will be most apparent on the glass and sand bed. Diatoms are between red/green in color, and appear to have a dusty consistancy. Diatoms will always be in your system, but they can/will occasionally bloom into greater numbers, especially in the first 6-9 months.

[brandon429]

From looking at the rock and the stated timeframe of the tank it looks like you used cured rock for the start? was it dry rock and you've been cycling it, or was it already from underwater in a LFS tank

the water change and physical removal is never harmful and a great idea unless you want the patches spreading. you may get lucky and they may recede naturally, if not then the tank will be a problem algae thread like many others, its your call. all natural, hands off is from the 90's and not the only way, you can also take full command over the tank its whole life. Both ways will grow coral, but have markedly different outcomes for the keeper.

Its common for a new tank to alternate through various populations relative to your tank care, husbandry, flow, lighting etc but one thing is for sure, nothing says you have to leave them in your tank at any stage of its running. On every reef Ive ever setup, I never took diatoms, cyano or any other pest as part of a cycle because in cycling I was only looking for nitrification. When using cured live rock, that was already set and it never took six weeks to begin, more like 6 hours to tank stocking. When anthing bad popped up Id remove it, do a water change, and not stress alot on attaining zero nitrate and phosphate, I found quick manual removal of the occasional growth far simpler. At any time you can do a huge water change, matching temp and sg, and it will refresh the tank not upset it. There is nothing that water changes can do to filter bacteria at any stage of the tank as well, cycling or not, so that's another worry to cast off when considering doing water changes which will only benefit your tank. If you did 100% water changes every morning for five years it wouldn't hurt your tank, it would run great.

Since thats not practical, as close as you are willing to get to it only provides you a safe zone against tank invasion lol
B

[brandon429]

Yes I agree that pigment is a progrowth of either cyano or one of the many red invasive macro algaes. since you said it comes off Im nearly certain its cyano, its not uncommon to a reef tank and it doesn't reflect poor water params considering how localized the new growth is, seems like your tank is very balanced. If you used cured rock, time to add some corals, remove this growth with siphoning and a quick water change, and get goin on the tank growout. it looks great, there seems to be no other indications the tank isn't ready, you still reading ammonia or not?

[brandon429]

Want to reinforce again that no water change behavior will affect your filter bacteria population. They aren't delicate little creatures who bloom and recede to any measurable degree based on water changes. They are the most adaptive organisms on the planet, who will indeed bloom and sustain in a cup of distilled water left on your windowsill. Changing water at this stage in your tank will never make it less able to filter, or less stable in any way, its only good for the system. Filter bacteria are housed in floc or biofilms that provide a buffer to being removed from the water, massive salinity shifts, bouts of low feed, everything we do to tanks.

If you took a marine tank that had only slate rock in the system and sand, say a fish only tank, and you removed all the fish and refilled the tank with freshwater, it could instantly keep a load of freshwater fish without cycling, the bacteria can easily move between euryhaline (salt fluctuation) environments. Lab techs and microbiologists who have to make pure samples know the plague that is generalized aerobic bacteria, we only wish they were killed by saltwater in one form or another then the whole lab would be so simple to sterilize. You could filter the lab air through saltwater and kill them if that notion was accurate, because the spores surrounding us in the air would be killed by the quick wash of saltwater they were not used to.

I tested and found nitrifying bacteria in the GAB group in gas tainted street puddles in college in the 90's, thats when I knew water changes did not cause instability in a tank. our professor wanted to show us how adaptable these bacteria were, and how widely distributed they are. The rule is they bloom anywhere there is water, they don't need ammonia right off the bat. They only need fluid to sporulate and hang around for weeks, even in clean distilled water as listed. Not changing enough water and allowing the tank to store up detritus/waste floc will actually increase the growth of all bacteria in the system and increase the biological oxygen demand which affects the tank negatively at night. The amount of bacteria that naturally take hold while you keep your tank as clean as possible is the stability factor you want. Since water changes are not antibacterial, its okay and recommended through years of application, Ive seen it make the difference in a clean tank or a headache tank.

Clean up crews become secondary when you take manual gardening control of any reef tank. They are fine to have, but when you see a spot they missed, remove it through one of many ways suited to the organism. Sitting back and watching any pest grow and grow is why we have so many threads where tanks were lost to algae. They feared unending upset of their tank and let the tank choose its course...Im not against the older ways of tank keeping Im just for new ways that center on total control of a reef and never letting one crash.