Almost clear bubble on paly rock.

QuinnLee512 · Oct 2, 2021

My palythoa has been closed for about a week now. Anybody know what this circular stuff is? Also side question. My fishless frag tank water keeps on getting cloudy. I just did a 90% water change a few hours ago and as everyone can see in the pic, it's getting cloudy again. The rock on this paly looks really green. Any chance one coral can cause a 10G frag tank to be cloudy?

Steve and his Animals · Oct 2, 2021

Looks like bubble algae/valonia. Those usually don't bother coral unless they're outright smothering them. And yes, one coral can cloud a tank if it's dead/rotting in there, especially fleshy LPS corals.

Isopod80 · Oct 2, 2021

Bubble algae. (Velonia) It's invasive. Emerald crabs typically do a good job on it.

Uzidaisies · Oct 2, 2021

Appears to be bubble algae, and I don’t really know enough about the frag tank to comment on the cloudiness, other than, it’s not from the rock being green. The rock being green could be related maybe, but I don’t think its coming from that particular rock. Unless you’ve been popping those bubbles or something, then idk.

Uzidaisies · Oct 2, 2021

Uzidaisies said:
Appears to be bubble algae, and I don’t really know enough about the frag tank to comment on the cloudiness, other than, it’s not from the rock being green. The rock being green could be related maybe, but I don’t think its coming from that particular rock. Unless you’ve been popping those bubbles or something, then idk.

Sorry correction, if the coral is decaying, then yeah, that could be it.

Tired · Oct 2, 2021

Bubble algae. I'd pull that out. Sometimes it's perfectly fine in tanks, sometimes it acts a bit invasive.

One rotting coral could cloud a tank, but those palys aren't rotting.

Also, don't touch a palythoas frag with your bare hands. Many palythoas are toxic. You shouldn't touch reef rocks with your bare hands either way, they can be sharp and can have really nasty bacteria.

Uzidaisies · Oct 2, 2021

Tired said:
Bubble algae. I'd pull that out. Sometimes it's perfectly fine in tanks, sometimes it acts a bit invasive.

One rotting coral could cloud a tank, but those palys aren't rotting.

Also, don't touch a palythoas frag with your bare hands. Many palythoas are toxic. You shouldn't touch reef rocks with your bare hands either way, they can be sharp and can have really nasty bacteria.

Idk, they look kinda putrid and they haven’t opened in a week. I don’t know what rotting palys look like though.

N.Sreefer · Oct 2, 2021

Uzidaisies said:
Idk, they look kinda putrid and they haven’t opened in a week. I don’t know what rotting palys look like though.

Do they smell awful?

Uzidaisies · Oct 2, 2021

N.Sreefer said:
Do they smell awful?

Don’t know, I’m not OP. I’ll get back to you when they finally invent smell-o-vision.

Tired · Oct 2, 2021

A dead soft coral is a soft coral that's completely melted away. Soft corals that are still present are generally not dead. That said, if they smell like horrible rot (don't put them too close to your face), they might have just died.

QuinnLee512 · Oct 2, 2021

Darn I wish I had another tank. This is my coral QT. Need to figure out where to put this guy. My other corals are perfectly happy. This one is the only question mark. If this coral was dying, shouldn't I have nitrates? Since this is a fishless QT, I don't throw in any food so I have a problem of there being 0 nitrates and .1 phosphates. I'm about to dose some nitrates.

polyp_craze · Oct 2, 2021

Try not to pop them in the tank! It will make it spread faster

Tired · Oct 2, 2021

An actively rotting substance should produce nitrates, yes, assuming your biofilter is converting it all from ammonia. A dying coral wouldn't be rotting yet, though. Things don't rot until they're dead.

Rapidly clouding water is likely a bacterial bloom.

Before getting rid of the paly, dose nitrates and keep them up. 5ppm or more, probably. I'd bet it's shrunken up from low nutrients/nutrient imbalance and will improve once you give it nutrients. Unless it stinks like hell, in which case, chuck it.

QuinnLee512 · Oct 3, 2021

Tired said:
An actively rotting substance should produce nitrates, yes, assuming your biofilter is converting it all from ammonia. A dying coral wouldn't be rotting yet, though. Things don't rot until they're dead.

Rapidly clouding water is likely a bacterial bloom.

Before getting rid of the paly, dose nitrates and keep them up. 5ppm or more, probably. I'd bet it's shrunken up from low nutrients/nutrient imbalance and will improve once you give it nutrients. Unless it stinks like hell, in which case, chuck it.

Thanks. Yeah I had assumed that the paly was closed due to the zero nitrates and high phosphates. Just got some neonitro today to dose nitrates.

For the bacterial bloom, shouldn't I have ammonia and nitrite? I just checked and I have 0 of both.

Tired · Oct 3, 2021

Bacterial blooms can happen from high nutrients, high organics in the water, or sometimes for no evident reason, though the latter is pretty rare. I would also think about if there could be any contaminants that could have gotten in somehow, though the cloudiness multiplying after water changes likely rules that out.

Once you have some nitrates, that phosphate level is just fine for soft corals, and really for most corals if there's enough nitrates. Definitely b