HELP!!! My sons tank has some odd algae or bacteria or something!!

[FrancineJ]

As stated in the title my sons biocube 32 has some weird stuff growing in it everywhere and I’m not sure what it is but it’s spreading like crazy and there are 2 very different looking things... his snails don’t seem to do a thing to it... (he has trochus, small/lg nass., and cerith (large))

It just popped up out of no where.... we are extremely vigilant in doing our weekly water changes... we NEVER miss one.... we have about 25-26g of actual water and we generally change about 6-8 gallons a week....

We have tons of flow... (2 aqamai KPS’) and it doesn’t seem to matter anyway because this stuff is everywhere now (even on one of the pumps)

I haven’t seen anything like either of these in my tanks (maybe I got lucky) I don’t know...

The first picture is like a tube like thing that is obviously in the rock because we just did a water change yesterday and I pulled it off with tweezers and it’s back to the same size again today... I can’t tell if it’s the only one but it’s the only one we can see.... it literally flows like a coral would.... but it’s obviously agressive if I pulled it right out less than 12 hrs later it’s back and the same size....


The second “algae” is like almost like cob webs or something but it’s like clear .... it was not like this yesterday it just appeared today (or finally grew big enough that we can see it).....
It also flows and moves...but it’s more like a sheet (like Cyano kind of) but it’s clearish/white.... I have no idea if this is something common or not but I just never seen either in my tank so it’s foreign to me....

I’ll post the best pictures I can... and ANY and as much advice of what to do would be helpful

His parameters “seem” good:
No ammonia, no nitrites, no nitrAtes (even using low testing kits)

And his phosphates are 0.03 with repeated checks on a UL Hanna..... so I am puzzled...

I know with certain algae’s and such it can give false results because the algae is taking up the nitrAtes and phosphates but when I say we are strick on water changes I mean EVERY week... we have never ever missed a week ever....and we are always changing more than what I think o necessary.... again 6-8 g’s a week out of about 25 total g’s (including the build in back part) should be enough I would think.... (maybe I’m wrong but that seems like quite a bit per week)

I’m not sure if I should just try and wipe this stuff off or pull it out?? It looks like cobwebs swaying in the flow....

Anyway here are the pictures.... my camera sucks so I hope you guys can see them!

The first 4 pictures are of the same piece...

The rest I tried my best to get of this con web like flowing stuff....

I’m hoping it’s somethinf easy to fix as I don’t want any harm to his fish

If you need anymore info just let me know....

 

[Florida Sunshine]

The first one looks like aiptasia. Definitely take care of it as quickly as possible. If it is just the one, I would take the rock out and cover that area with super glue gel. They spread quickly and become very invasive. Other options are kalk paste, lemon juice, and Aiptasia X. All have mixed reports of working some times and not working others. Oh and boiling water is also recommended frequently.

 

[reef lover]

+1 for aptasia..the algae im not sure about.

 

[FrancineJ]

All his rock btw is the Caribsea Liferock... so none of it is live... not sure if that would help any....

I just pulled that first thing out again with tweezers...

How would we have got this stuff from using non live rock (come in on the fish) or possibly corals? (He just has a couple Zoas and we dipped them and nothing hardly came off at all (one little star looking thing out of 4 frags)

So what would you guys recommend as the most effective? I don’t know if there is more of them or not...

Just in case how does this apistia x work? Is it something I just dose in the tank?

 

[ilyad]

Definitely Aiptasia in the first one. And you probably did not pull it out, it most likely retracted into the rocks. Its part of the anemone family and can close up when threatened. It can also shoot spores into the water column if stressed, so I would read up on treating aiptasia in a tank. Just yanking it will cause a lot more to spread, faster than they would otherwise.

Not sure on the algea issue, but to me it just looks like detritus built up. And if you happen to have cleaned the sand I notice it lay a small layer of that stuff all over the tank for a bit. Do you have any filtration like a sock or sponge to pull out small particulates in the water?

 

[ilyad]

All his rock btw is the Caribsea Liferock... so none of it is live... not sure if that would help any....

I just pulled that first thing out again with tweezers...

How would we have got this stuff from using non live rock (come in on the fish) or possibly corals? (He just has a couple Zoas and we dipped them and nothing hardly came off at all (one little star looking thing out of 4 frags)

So what would you guys recommend as the most effective? I don’t know if there is more of them or not...

Just in case how does this apistia x work? Is it something I just dose in the tank?

Aipatasia would not come in on a fish and almost always on a frag plug with a coral. Unlike a bug pest, these are very closely related to corals, so normal coral dips DO NOT kill it. If you absolutely want to avoid having those in your tank, you would need to QT coral in a separate tank and monitor to see if any grow on a plug. Otherwise, inspect very carefully, and when possible cut off the old plug.

Aiptasia X is just a kalk based liquid that you use a syringe to cover the Aiptasia with. It would usually come with a small bottle and a syringe. Follow the instrcutions carefully about getting the kalk paste onto the oral disk which would prevent the Aiptasia from releasing the spores. You would then cover it with even more. If you are careful, its a really good way to keep it under control if the tank is not overrun. Check some YouTube videos or do a search in this forum for various methods. A natulral way to get rid of them is to get Berghia Nudies which eat the Aiptasia.

 

[FrancineJ]

Thanks everyone and that’s GREAT! To know that that’s what he has... and it is... I just went back and checked and it’s there (or “back” again) I will do some research... it’s right near the Zoas so that’s obviously where it came from...

Unfortunately we don’t have anywhere to QT the corals right now...


As for the cob web stuff it doesn’t really look like detritus... (not the kind I have seen anyway)... we siphon a small part of the sand every week but that part hasn’t been done in a while... it does not come off easily.... I tried to see if it would... and some of it kind of came off with a toothbrush... if it was detritus wouldn’t my nass. Snails be eating it?

As for filtration... it’s a biocube 32... so we have an InTank media rack with their floss (the blue and white stuff) and then purigen and then chemipure elite....

We were told we shouldn’t need a skimmer because we vigilantly do our water changes and 2nd because it’s impossible to find a skimmer that fits the 32 except the oceanic one... and it’s apparently crap... We have one... but have not used it because of all the negative reviews however I have found a couple you tube videos of how to make it work better/properly by replacing the pump with a tetra whisper one so it’s coming tomorrow and we will see if that does anything...

The only other thing that has been moving around the sand lately is the annoying new royal gramma who has decided he wants one of the caves to live in and keeps pulling out mouthfuls of sand and moving them around EVERYWHERE! Spitting it all over the rocks and making piles in the sand... but he lives up at the front of the tank and not near the back where all that cob web like stuff is .... so I’m not sure....

Thanks for all the help so far! I’ll get on my research...