red velvet on LR

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truckdriver

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Feb 23, 2008
Messages
6
I have noticed a red velvet covering on some of my LR and also on one of my corals. Is there any need to worry about this and if so, is there anything to get rid of it. I just started dealing with salt water and have a lot to learn. 125 gal long with 150 lbs of LR and 9 soft corals.
 
are they growing bubbles on them and slimy if they are this is red slime part of the cycle keep checking your levels and do water changes
 
I don't notice any bubbles. It is forming something like a sheet over the rock. It separated and I was able to grasp parts of it with my tongs a pull it out.
 
I will assume that because you have corals in the tank that the "red velvet algae," cyanobacteria, covering the rocks is there due to available nutrients and not cycle related, but just to ease my mind: You are not in the process of cycling your aquarium with corals in it are you? Mind posting some tank parameters, any fish that might be present, and what/if you feed (also how much)?
 
Just to second Innovator's comment, cyanobacteria is NOT a normal part of cycling a tank. Diatoms are... but not cyano.

In addition to the questions from Innovator, what are your nitrate and phosphate levels, and are you using tap water or RO/DI water? Are you dosing any "coral food" or anything other than fish food?
 
I have a 125 long, run fx5 and cascade 700 with 4 powerheads and uv sterilizer. Have sailfin tang, palatte tang, coral beauty, klien's butterfly, 2 orange spot gobies, sixline wrasse, percula clown, cowfish, tigertail, fighting conch, sally lightfoot 3 hermit crabs, 3 turbo snail, 5 emerald crabs, 2 couri snails, 4 nisarrius snails, 3 cleaner shrimp, condy and long tent anenome colt coral, coco worm, bubble corral, 2 cup corals, flowerpot coral, 150 lbs. live rock, live sand. my parameters are nitrite 0, ammonia 0, nitrate 5, phoshate .25, ph 8.3. I feed phytoplankton 2 times weekly and puple up 1 time a week. I feed brine shrimp and seaweed along with flake food 2 times daily.
 
... phoshate .25, ph 8.3. I feed phytoplankton 2 times weekly and puple up 1 time a week. I feed brine shrimp and seaweed along with flake food 2 times daily.

Those phosphates are really high. Agree with tawolcott, get an iron-based phosphate remover in the flow path somewhere. Gentle flow is what you want with that stuff. Any phosphates over 0.03ppm is considered too much. (In my thinking, anything over 0.0 is too much!)

Twice a day feeding is not helping the phosphates. You can easily cut back to once a day. Many will tell you once every two days. And as a side note, you might replace the brine shrimp with mysis shrimp - brine shrimp has little nutritional value.

You could probably cut back on the phyto too, but not sure how much you're feeding, or how exactly you're doing it. Except for the coco worm and maybe the cup/flowerpot corals (don't know much about those - maybe someone else will chime in on that) nothing else in the tank really wants it. Unless you're target feeding with the powerheads off, that stuff can muck up a tank quick.

Not a big fan of PurpleUp either... are you using it to elevate your calcium levels? What are your Calcium and alkalinity levels?

I'm pretty amazed though that your water parameters are as good as they are with the bioload you have there. You must be good at doing your water changes! How long has the tank been up?
 
That purple up can get out of hand IMO. Purple here and there but not entire sections of the tank covered doesn't look natural to me. Just regular water changes and patience will get you much better results IMO.

I also agree on cutting back the feeding - regular food and the phyto. I too am amazed that water levels are so decent.
 
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