Live rock growth. Good? Bad?

[Yokahammy]

Im very new to salt water aquariums, that being said I set up my first tank about a month ago. It's a 55 gallon with a few fish, a crab, and a shrimp. In the past week or so I've started building a think film on my live rocks and not sure if I should be trying to remove it or let it be. Thanks in advance [emoji3]

 

[FL_Reefer]

Bad. Looks like you have combo of hair algae and cyano bacteria. there is a phosphate problem going on here. Have you tested any of your levels?

 

[Diesel]

Yes Hair algae alright, not sure on the second one as Cyano and Spirulina can look exactly the same.
Doing a simple test that our friend @twilliard can point out to you will give you answers and from there on we can set up a game plan for you to battle this.
Mean while can you tell us what your Phosphate, Nitrate and PH is?
How often do you do a water change and do you mix your own water?
Do you use RODI for that and if so any test result on that water?
What kind of light do you run over the tank?
What is the lifestock load?

 

[Reefer's Paradise]

Definitely hair algae for one but second one is cyano as my guess. Definitely check phosphates and determine what your bioload is that could be raising these levels in your water.
Do you have a skimmer for the livestock load in the tank? What's your feeding regiment?
Let's us know what tests you can do and the results.
Be mindful tho you may get a false reading for a simple nitrates test due to the build up of the algae as they are absorbing it out of the water so your test may show you don't have any problems but you do.

 

[Yokahammy]

Yes Hair algae alright, not sure on the second one as Cyano and Spirulina can look exactly the same.
Doing a simple test that our friend @twilliard can point out to you will give you answers and from there on we can set up a game plan for you to battle this.
Mean while can you tell us what your Phosphate, Nitrate and PH is?
How often do you do a water change and do you mix your own water?
Do you use RODI for that and if so any test result on that water?
What kind of light do you run over the tank?
What is the lifestock load?

I've been having it tested at my LFS a few times a week and have been told my nitrates were the only issue as they were around 10. I just started using the fluval marine & reef LED 2.0. I've been doing two 5 gallon water changes a week using RODI (have not been testing the RODI because honestly I didn't know I needed too) I have two chromis, a clownfish, sand skimmer, shrimp, and a crab. Being new to all this I'm a little overwhelmed.

 

[Yokahammy]

Definitely hair algae for one but second one is cyano as my guess. Definitely check phosphates and determine what your bioload is that could be raising these levels in your water.
Do you have a skimmer for the livestock load in the tank? What's your feeding regiment?
Let's us know what tests you can do and the results.
Be mindful tho you may get a false reading for a simple nitrates test due to the build up of the algae as they are absorbing it out of the water so your test may show you don't have any problems but you do.

I just installed a skimmer about a week ago as well.

 

[Reefer's Paradise]

I just installed a skimmer about a week ago as well.

How's it running? Getting dark skim? You may need to run the lights off for most of the day except an hour or two and pull a more wet skim while blowing off the algae from the rocks and pulling whatever hair algae off you can. I'd also look into a lettuce nudibranch I had two that helped when I had a hair algae issue but they won't eat it all just keep it under control like a bandaid but they're also really cool creatures lol.
Once you can get it mostly out by having the lights off and pulling as much off as you can you can look at the permanent fix which is nitrates and the reason they're high. My guess is over feeding as I had a similar issue when I first started out and had cyano like crazy.

 

[Yokahammy]

How's it running? Getting dark skim? You may need to run the lights off for most of the day except an hour or two and pull a more wet skim while blowing off the algae from the rocks and pulling whatever hair algae off you can. I'd also look into a lettuce nudibranch I had two that helped when I had a hair algae issue but they won't eat it all just keep it under control like a bandaid but they're also really cool creatures lol.
Once you can get it mostly out by having the lights off and pulling as much off as you can you can look at the permanent fix which is nitrates and the reason they're high. My guess is over feeding as I had a similar issue when I first started out and had cyano like crazy.

It's getting a dark green skim. What exactly do you mean by pull a more wet skim? I guess I should have mentioned that I do have 3 coral frags in my tank, will only having lights on for a few hours hurt them?

 

[Diesel]

The reason you have HA is that you have a excess of nutrients in your water.
hate to say it but don't trust your LFS on test results, test your self.
One of the requirements of having a saltwater tank is having decent test kits, Po4, No3, ALK, CAL, MAG and PH to start out with.
These 6 will tell you plenty for what's going on with your tank.
No3 at 10 doesn't tell me much as I don't know your Po4.
Lots of ppl now days run their No3 around 10 now days as corals need nutrients, 10 ppm might be a little to much for your tank.
In order to drop that water changes is good, having a good skimmer, feed less, running a fuge with macro's and using nutrients reducing reactors as GFO or Bio-pellets.
I would start with the simple method as you already do so in water changes but you need to know what's in that water.
If you test 0.0 TDS your good if you go above that it shows that your RODI has or can have nutrients in there as you need to test for that.
Once you got that straighten out you will feed less, even your fish asking for more food one small feeding can be enough a day to get your nutrients under control, even skip feeding your fish for a day isn't that bad.
Now your red stuff can be a bit trickier as we don't know if this is cyano or not.
Again you need to test for that.
How..............
Take a portion of that red mat you see in your tank and place it into a cup with about 2 cups of tank water.
Now add 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide
Over the course of several hours you may start to see a change in the water and the color of your sample.
If in fact it is the common cyanobacteria and not spirulina the water will start to turn a pink color and the sample with start to turn a green color.
Now if it is spirulina there will be no change as h2o2 has little effect on the individual cells.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cyanobacteria-questions-answers-and-solution.253823/

 

[twilliard]

It has the looks of bryopsis a little harder to get rid of.
Now as in the bacteria this is where you would start
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/positive-identification-of-cyanobacteria.253287/
I wouldn't guess what it is as they both have different treatment methods.

 

[Yokahammy]

Thank you for all the information, I have some work to do this weekend with it all. Really appreciate all the knowledge and advise!

 

[FL_Reefer]

It has the looks of bryopsis a little harder to get rid of.
Now as in the bacteria this is where you would start
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/positive-identification-of-cyanobacteria.253287/
I wouldn't guess what it is as they both have different treatment methods.

I was kind of thinking the same thing but it looks chewed on, lol

 

[midtnmike41]

Take a look at the thread I had a few weeks ago. I had a bad outbreak, and thanks to Brandon I have it under control again. I searched high and low for my problem and have determined I was feeding too much. I cut my feeding back more than half and my fish all still look great but my tank looks MUCH better.

http://reef2reef.com/threads/algae-outbreak.249581/

 

[Yokahammy]

This may be a stupid question but what is the best test kit to get? I'm finding so many different ones out there.

 

[midtnmike41]

I use red Sea for nitrate, Hanna ul phosphorus, Hanna for alk, and salifert for Calc and mag. Everyone is going to have different opinions but this is what works for me. I think the most important part is pick what works for you and stay consistent with it. It took me a long time to get consistent readings with my test kits but I have routine now where I test the exact same way at the exact same times and it has served me well. Good luck.

 

[Yokahammy]

I use red Sea for nitrate, Hanna ul phosphorus, Hanna for alk, and salifert for Calc and mag. Everyone is going to have different opinions but this is what works for me. I think the most important part is pick what works for you and stay consistent with it. It took me a long time to get consistent readings with my test kits but I have routine now where I test the exact same way at the exact same times and it has served me well. Good luck.

Thank you!