Please Help me ID this pink GOOEY Slime

[MT. Reefer]

I was just cleaning out my Protein Skimmer and found this pink goo slime on the bottom. Looking around, I also found some on my mangroves and it appears that there is some in my fleece roller as well. This tank is two years old with some rock, sand, and a few corals coming over from smaller tanks. Not sure what it is but I'm sure it's not good.

 

[Troylee]

Never seen it pink but I’d guess a bacterial bloom of some sort.. it’s normally clear and goey

 

[Subsea]

I have Cotton Candy in several systems. I have not found it to be invasive.​

Reef Cleaners

A good guide to identify most of the nuisance algae that plagues the hobby. Complete with pictures and suggested treatments

www.reefcleaners.org

Cotton Candy Algae​

Algae under this heading usually appear as a light pink fuzz. Closer examination will show it is made up of many branches with even more branchlets. The plants are very small, lose form out of the water and sway in the current. Each plant forms from a single holdfast. Callithamnion species and the sporophyte stage of Asparagopsis taxiformis are usual suspects. The pictured specimen is quite good looking, they usually don't have such an aesthetic appeal, and are a dull red or reddish brown.

Manual Removal: Easy if it hasn't taken hold in places your fingers won't fit. Scrape your thumb on the surface it is attached to, while holding the algae like a pencil as you remove it. This helps you get the small holdfast.

Clean Up Crew members include urchins, sea hares, large turbos, emerald crabs and most hermit crabs.

This algae isn't particularly common, but has the ability to grow rapidly from fragments.https://reefcleaners.org/index.php?...n_set_any&product_type_3_consumes_[]=Caulerpa

 

[blaxsun]

 

[MT. Reefer]

I have Cotton Candy in several systems. I have not found it to be invasive.​

Reef Cleaners

A good guide to identify most of the nuisance algae that plagues the hobby. Complete with pictures and suggested treatments

www.reefcleaners.org

Cotton Candy Algae​

Algae under this heading usually appear as a light pink fuzz. Closer examination will show it is made up of many branches with even more branchlets. The plants are very small, lose form out of the water and sway in the current. Each plant forms from a single holdfast. Callithamnion species and the sporophyte stage of Asparagopsis taxiformis are usual suspects. The pictured specimen is quite good looking, they usually don't have such an aesthetic appeal, and are a dull red or reddish brown.

Manual Removal: Easy if it hasn't taken hold in places your fingers won't fit. Scrape your thumb on the surface it is attached to, while holding the algae like a pencil as you remove it. This helps you get the small holdfast.

Clean Up Crew members include urchins, sea hares, large turbos, emerald crabs and most hermit crabs.

This algae isn't particularly common, but has the ability to grow rapidly from fragments.https://reefcleaners.org/index.php?...n_set_any&product_type_3_consumes_[]=Caulerpa

 

[MT. Reefer]

Nope, not like that. Think of Silly Putty with the runs. This is gooey, slimy stuff. I would really doubt that it's any kind of algae. I took out my toilet paper roller and found another big clump of it. Looks like somebody smashed up a bunch of worms . Here's another pic.

 

[MT. Reefer]

Any ideas

@Bucs20fan ?​

 

[jabberwock]

Ectoplasm...

 

[Privateye]

That's a new one for me, but in intensive aquaculture systems you see similar things.

Are you dosing any carbon sources? Do you overfeed mysis or something? If neither then I have no clue.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Its a cyano type bacteria build up which is produced by an airborne bacteria known as Alcaligenes faecalis that can grow rapidly in the presence of alcohol based carbon dosing product and will get fuel from it. Because the overflow is up by the light, its getting its energy from light as its photosynthetic.
Placing a piece of cardboard or similar and running nopox will reverse it. Often when you are dosing Two-part product, this stuff starts to form in low flow areas

 

[MT. Reefer]

That's a new one for me, but in intensive aquaculture systems you see similar things.

Are you dosing any carbon sources? Do you overfeed mysis or something? If neither then I have no clue.

I dose 12ml of Red Sea NO3 PO4-x for my 150 gal tank and 60 gal sump. 8 fish and I feed 2 cubes Hikari Mega Marine and 1 cube Mysis

 

[Privateye]

I dose 12ml of Red Sea NO3 PO4-x for my 150 gal tank and 60 gal sump. 8 fish and I feed 2 cubes Hikari Mega Marine and 1 cube Mysis

Well, that is certainly a carbon source. @vetteguy53081 might have some input too, but back when I worked at a fish farm (freshwater) we saw plenty of something like that clogging the majority of our pipes coming from our denitrification reactors. We used molasses as the carbon source though, not alcohol.

I believe it's a relatively-harmless bacterial colony resulting from the excess nutrients. If you find it restricts the flow in your pipes that's probably the largest concern in my experience. And it sure can happen.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Well, that is certainly a carbon source. @vetteguy53081 might have some input too, but back when I worked at a fish farm (freshwater) we saw plenty of something like that clogging the majority of our pipes coming from our denitrification reactors. We used molasses as the carbon source though, not alcohol.

I believe it's a relatively-harmless bacterial colony resulting from the excess nutrients. If you find it restricts the flow in your pipes that's probably the largest concern in my experience. And it sure can happen.

That is indeed a carbon source

 

[MT. Reefer]

Bump

 

[GregL]

Sorry I'm a little late to this thread but I've been dealing with this issue myself. From what I can tell every single reefer that is dealing with the pink snot is dosing red sea no pox. Myself included. I'm going to be reducing my dose to see if it helps.

 

[MT. Reefer]

Sorry I'm a little late to this thread but I've been dealing with this issue myself. From what I can tell every single reefer that is dealing with the pink snot is dosing red sea no pox. Myself included. I'm going to be reducing my dose to see if it helps.

I have also reduced my dosing of No Pox and it has substantially subsided. So it is definitely from overdosing No Pox.