Hanging slime?

[Kristine Verzonilla]

I'm setting up a new tank & I have no idea what this thing is. It just looks like goo, it sways back & forth. Is it some kind of algae?

 

[Maritimer]

It doesn't look like any algae I've seen, but might be a worm ... or part of one.

How long has your tank had salt water in it, and where did your rocks come from? Aside from the liverock, is there anything else in there yet? Corals, cleanup crew, nitrifying bacteria?

~Bruce

 

[Crabs McJones]

I'm setting up a new tank & I have no idea what this thing is. It just looks like goo, it sways back & forth. Is it some kind of algae?

Hard to tell from the picture. What color is it? It could be red or purple slime algae

 

[Coralfuture]

It looks like a large piece of red slime that blew off the sand bed and just happen to catch like that based on the sediment attached to it

 

[Kristine Verzonilla]

It doesn't look like any algae I've seen, but might be a worm ... or part of one.

How long has your tank had salt water in it, and where did your rocks come from? Aside from the liverock, is there anything else in there yet? Corals, cleanup crew, nitrifying bacteria?

~Bruce

It doesn’t seem to be a worm, it’s not uniform & definitely not alive.

The tank has only been going for a couple of days, the rock is a mix of some from the aquarium store & my fiancé’s tank. Some of the sand as well. So it’s got a lot of bacteria to start with. One of the rocks came with a colony of palys that have been doing well so far, as well as a hermit & a snail hitchhiker.

It looks like a large piece of red slime that blew off the sand bed and just happen to catch like that based on the sediment attached to it

That’s definitely possible, may have just been on there when I got it. Not far along in the cycle to even be growing algae yet.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Primordial ooze.
Or some organics. Was it live or dry rock,

 

[Coralfuture]

Got it! I've seen that before! That's some of the algae that had been stuck on your pukani dry rock! I had a ton of that on mine deep in tiny holes and crevices that only a tweezers could possibly reach. I got tired and just threw it in with tiny pieces still attached and then a day or 2 later I had a few large ribbons of that coming out of where I had been unable to reach it. Either way its harmless just food for the cycle. I'm sad I didn't recognize it earlier sorry about that!

 

[Kristine Verzonilla]

Primordial ooze.
Or some organics. Was it live or dry rock,

It was live rock.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

It was live rock.

Then yes , probably just bacterial ooze from minor dieoff.

Did you use and bottled bacteria ? Or ammonia to help the cycle ?

Keep an eye on it , blow it off and such.

 

[Kristine Verzonilla]

Then yes , probably just bacterial ooze from minor dieoff.

Did you use and bottled bacteria ? Or ammonia to help the cycle ?

Keep an eye on it , blow it off and such.

I’ve been dosing it with 1/8 tsp of ammonia each day. Didn’t want to pour a full tsp in & risk killing the palys. I figure the mix of established live rock & sand should cycle fairly quickly.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I’ve been dosing it with 1/8 tsp of ammonia each day. Didn’t want to pour a full tsp in & risk killing the palys. I figure the mix of established live rock & sand should cycle fairly quickly.

Def stop the ammoina.

With the live rock it's already live and cycling.

A common misunderstanding.
Wat to many folks kids think you have to "cycle the tank".
It's not quite true.

If you put a pice of live rock into a fresh bucket it small tank with Fresh mix sweater and a powerhead , you can actually drop a fish right in. The rock IS cycling ammoina already because the rock has bacteria.
It is good practice to let the water "mature " though, Ie build up some bacteria in the water. For corals and fish.

Another misconception is the ugly phase and alge. These have almost nothing to do with the cycle , save that algaes and such are feeding in the excess nitrogen that is not being eaten by the low population of bacteria in many new tanks.

I'd just let it all rest and finish eating that stuff up.

 

[Cnidoblast]

I'd stop dosing ammonia and put a bottle of biospira in - after a few days do some water changes and measure your levels

 

[Schreiber]

Just had her tank tested yesterday, things look great! As far as the suggestions of stopping the ammonia dosing, I know that the tank was probably already "cycled", I just wanted to test it out experimentally by dosing it with a known amount of Ammonia & seeing it go through the breakdown. Ammonia is somewhere between 0 & 0.1 ppm, Nitrites are at 0, & Nitrates are a little above 20. She'll pick out a small clean-up crew this weekend & go from there. Thanks for all the help on the ID everyone, the algae worm has been removed!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Just had her tank tested yesterday, things look great! As far as the suggestions of stopping the ammonia dosing, I know that the tank was probably already "cycled", I just wanted to test it out experimentally by dosing it with a known amount of Ammonia & seeing it go through the breakdown. Ammonia is somewhere between 0 & 0.1 ppm, Nitrites are at 0, & Nitrates are a little above 20. She'll pick out a small clean-up crew this weekend & go from there. Thanks for all the help on the ID everyone, the algae worm has been removed!

Interesting