Trying to figure whats growing on my rocks

bigdaddyk01040 · May 30, 2020

tank has been set up for 6 months. I have a red sea 350 still pretty new at reef keeping. And my live rock has all this I imagine algae but I can't seem to id it. Looks like a dark purple or red with lights on but when blues are off or white light is on looks like a rust brown. Gonna try and post some pics dont know how they will come out thanks for any advice or help.

Readings.
Am. 0
Nitrite. 0.
Nitrate. 2
Phosphate. .025
Salinity. 1.026
Calc. 400
Dkh. 10
Mag. 1380

KrisReef · May 30, 2020

The description sounds like it could be slime algae (cyano-bacteria)?

Edit, and I tried to zoom in but my old eyes can't make it out either.

bigdaddyk01040 · May 30, 2020

KrisReef said:
The description sounds like it could be slime algae (cyano-bacteria)?

Edit, and I tried to zoom in but my old eyes can't make it out either.

Thats what I was thinking, been running around on Google since I cant get my lfs to come take a look with everything going on. And my phone doesn't take good pictures so I figure I see what opinions I may get. I just set up a refugium to hopefully try and starve out the dt and maybe stop it. But idea if that will work i put chaeto in

KrisReef · May 30, 2020

Did you start with live rock (from another tank of the ocean)? It is fairly common to have algae and cyano growth during the first year or so as the tank grows up. What you have right now isn't too horrible and if it doesn't get worse it may just grow for a bit and then disappear as the tank ages.

Chaeto is a reasonable way to move nutrients out of the system and certainly worth trying, imo.

bigdaddyk01040 · May 30, 2020

I started with dry life rick from my lfs, and caribsea live sand.

Johny Cash · May 30, 2020

You said the tank is 6 months old,
When did this appear? have you install anything new like plastic? I think it may be diatoms, you could never tell without a microscope as they all look similar.

I was having the same issue only it was on my sand bed, i was sweating it thinking it was dinos or cyano so i bought a cheap microscope from amazon and found out that it was diatoms, look almost reddish brown with strings and if i left without siphoning it got ticker, I am still battling it, but im just going to let it run its course and be gone. As long as you dont add more silicates in to water via tap water, or bad ro water di-resin, or any plastic new pumps or tubes etc... should be gone by itself, maintain weekly water changes, keep nutrients where you have them.

bigdaddyk01040 · May 30, 2020

It popped up about two weeks ago, after adding in my frag rack after getting some coral now that I think about it. I try washing everything with ro water. And I'm hoping my resin is still good in my rodi system its still black and my filters are still white and clean. Possible I didn't clean my eggcrate i used for the fragrack good enough?

bigdaddyk01040 · May 30, 2020

I haven't been able to get my hands on a tds meter since everything so hard to get with everything going on

Johny Cash · May 30, 2020

I would think that could be the reason, if so let it absorb all silicate and they will starve.

Mine bloomed after adding silicon tubing for my micro algae reactor its been 3 weeks but i see that its slowly going away.

Hows your flow in the tank?

bigdaddyk01040 · May 30, 2020

Johny Cash said:
I would think that could be the reason, if so let it absorb all silicate and they will starve.

Mine bloomed after adding silicon tubing for my micro algae reactor its been 3 weeks but i see that its slowly going away.

Hows your flow in the tank?

I have a redsea 25 WaveMaker 40 forward and 70 reverse seems to push the water good for now i want to add a second one