Is this some form of precipitate?

[jkobel]

Hey everyone,

I have been battling GHA for a few months and right at the beginning of that battle this purple stuff started showing up on my sand. In the beginning it was just on my sand but now it covers all surfaces. In the pic i outline a small spot where a snail moved the sand so you can see how drastic it is but it's literally on everything.

I have never seen any precipitation event and from Alk/Cal I would assume any precipitation would be white, not purple.

I have tried to vacuum it but it clumps together and doesnt really go into the vacuum. I have just scraped it out and removed it but it comes back. It almost looks like coraline algae in dust form.

Has anyone seen this before?

Thx!

 

[jkobel]

Sorry, forgot current params:

Alk - 8.7
Ca - 437
Mg - 1390
Phos - 0.0
Nitrate - 0.0
Ph - 7.97
Temp - 78.1
Sal - 1.026

Alk, Ca, phos, Nitrate all Hanna. Mg is RedSea.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’m not sure what it is, but no chemical precipitate in a reef tank is purple.

I suspect it is some sort of organism. It might be purple bacteria:

Purple bacteria - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[jkobel]

When it first happened I thought it was some type of detritus but there isn’t anything eating that much or an abundance of food. I’m also fighting Ich, so almost all fish are out

ive started using mictobacter 7 in case it was detritus hoping that would help but no luck yet

If it’s bacteria is there something that will eat it?

 

[killer2001]

Have you used coral snow recently?

 

[WheatToast]

The purple appearance might be the result of your lighting.
What's your flow like?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

When it first happened I thought it was some type of detritus but there isn’t anything eating that much or an abundance of food. I’m also fighting Ich, so almost all fish are out

ive started using mictobacter 7 in case it was detritus hoping that would help but no luck yet

If it’s bacteria is there something that will eat it?

I do not know what, if anything, that we keep that can eat it.

 

[jkobel]

Have you used coral snow recently?

I have used it two times total. The first time was approximately 5 weeks after this showed up

 

[jkobel]

The purple appearance might be the result of your lighting.
What's your flow like?

Good point. Here is a pic under only cool and warm whites at 100%

flow is strong in top half and moderate to low on bottom. 2 x mp40 (one each end) at about 40% power.

 

[OldRed1]

Bumping this for visibility. @vetteguy53081 have you ever seen anything like this?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Oh, it’s not actually purple under white light? It looks tan?

 

[TankCandy]

Is it currently floating around in your water column or is it all settled?

 

[jkobel]

Oh, it’s not actually purple under white light? It looks tan?

yes, thats my bad. i always adjust the lights for a pic but really never actually go all white.

 

[jkobel]

Is it currently floating around in your water column or is it all settled?

all settled. water is normally fairly clear

 

[vetteguy53081]

While it could be chrysophytes, it looks more like what is called mulm but hard to really see in pic.
What do you have in tank in terms of water flow ? This you may have to rake then vacuum or sift with a net and rinse

 

[jkobel]

While it could be chrysophytes, it looks more like what is called mulm but hard to really see in pic.
What do you have in tank in terms of water flow ? This you may have to rake then vacuum or sift with a net and rinse

flow is strong in top half and moderate to low on bottom. 2 x mp40 (one each end) at about 40% power.

Its hard to believe this is mulm after doing some reading. it looks like it but not sure where it all continues to come from. I currently have 3 fish in the tank (2x damsels and a mandarin) and feeding sparingly.

Something that does come to mind tho - when this started I was in the beginning of an algae outbreak and the back wall was covered in nasty stringy stuff, at the time i assumed GHA. I had recently added a couple jars of pods to the tank. I went out of town for a few days and when i came back the back wall was clear and this was all over the sand bed. Doing research i shortly came across the video from RAP where Ryan from BRS talked about pods eating algae and leaving what looks just like this all over the tank, and at first thats what i though ti was. When I couldn't vacuum it out and it was increasing i started to think it was somethgin else. It its mulm or detritus is there something that will break it down?

As a side note - I dosed Flux Rx 2.5 weeks ago in my ongoing battle against GHA and while the GHA seems 100% un-phased the cheato in the sump is exploding. Again, this material has been in the tank since mid-July.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Flux- which rarely works does not address GHA but rather Bryopsis. GHA best removed by hand followed by reduction in light intensity - mainly white. Stringy stuff on back wall may be Lyngya but cant say without Pics to identify.

 

[killer2001]

I have some of this in my tank, in random spots here and there. I noticed it after using coral snow, appears to be detritus combined with coral snow (IMO). I also know it goes away within a week or so, I think my copepod population is consuming it.

 

[jkobel]

theres so much conflicting information about Flux. Bryopsis, sure. But i've watched probably 30 videos of people showing it melting the GHA and read double that number of threads here on R2R with success stories. Also, my LFS swears by it.

have you tried it with GHA?

 

[jkobel]

I have some of this in my tank, in random spots here and there. I noticed it after using coral snow, appears to be detritus combined with coral snow (IMO). I also know it goes away within a week or so, I think my copepod population is consuming it.

This is interesting. It’s been here consistently since mid July. I vacuumed and scraped some out and it came back