ID and removal

[Gp!]

I have been letting my dry rocks cycle in tubs since roughly May. I seeded with Dr. Tim's bacteria in a bottle and coralline from Arc reef. Pods from algae barn. And also chaeto from algae barn but it's mostly gone now.

I've been busy and haven't had a chance to set up my aquariums yet so I've just been letting them cycle. I haven't been too involved with them. I was happy I was getting growth. I got worried when I noticed that my pods were dying but I didn't pay attention because I wasn't specifically feeding them much and I didn't look real hard. Then my mollies died in all 4 tubs. Nitrates are 20 from salifert test and phosphorus 33 ppb from hanna checker. So high for a reef but I don't think dangerous? No ammonia from alert badges. I noticed when I moved some rocks around the other day that my fingers blistered and are still red actually. So all this adds up to now I need to fix a problem lol.

Took some photos. The 4 x 55gal tubs are covered with opaque tops that block light for probably 90% or more of the time. Tops have cuts for the filters and electric cords so some light gets in. Outside in direct sunlight. Started to get what appeared to be red corralline at one point but now it is mostly all covered. I am guessing cyano and dino from reading in this forum.

 

[Murica]

Definitely looks like cyano and getting your levels down plus increasing flow should help the problem a lot. You can easily remove cyano with a turkey baster or swishing your rocks around a little. Cyano is toxic to most marine life so be sure to remove it immediately or take it off in a bucket or something

 

[LetItReef]

Had similiar issue. I left the rocks out on a bucket with not alot of flow and made that green films. I scrubbed it again and dried it out.
I will keep an eye out on the rocks once I set-up my tank.

 

[Gp!]

Each tank is 55 gallons hdx containers and has a seachem tidal 110 filter. Specs say 450 gph. Do I really need more flow for these and this purpose?

 

[Oldsalt01]

+1 for cyano, and what looks like green slime algae (which may be a form of cyano). I’m curious about your fingers, as I know of no situation caused by elevated nutrients to cause this. Any chance u could have come in contact with a fire worm, or scraped/cut your fingers on the rock and now have a slight bacterial infection?

 

[Gp!]

Pr

+1 for cyano, and what looks like green slime algae (which may be a form of cyano). I’m curious about your fingers, as I know of no situation caused by elevated nutrients to cause this. Any chance u could have come in contact with a fire worm, or scraped/cut your fingers on the rock and now have a slight bacterial infection?

Probably. Shouldn't have any worms yet since I started with dry rock and haven't added anything that would introduce hitchhikers yet. But that's plausible. Just checking cause the mollies died and I didn't expect that to happen randomly

 

[Oldsalt01]

Not trying to freak you out, but I would deal with your fingers post haste. U can get nasty little infections (vibrio, mrsa) especially from a situation such as your holding tubs. Broad spectrum antibiotic creams: neosporin, bacitracin, etc should help. Recommend gloves for the next time you handle that rock.

 

[Subsea]

Last month, here in Austin, a whole family had to go to hospital due to palay toxins. Only one family member had contact with water. For 3 other family members affected, it was airborne.

 

[Gp!]

Last month, here in Austin, a whole family had to go to hospital due to palay toxins. Only one family member had contact with water. For 3 other family members affected, it was airborne.

I'm perfectly healthy but I appreciate the concern. Mine was over the fish. Nothing wrong with me.

 

[extremetang]

Doesn’t look like red coralline. That’s cyano. Coralline is hard and encrusted while cyano is slimy.
You can remove cyano by covering it up (keep in the dark, void of any light for 3 days). But still keep your pumps running for water circulation.