what is this!?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
S

sharonar22

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
5
Location
Hillsboro, Oregon
Hello everyone! I'm new here~ this looks like a really great site, I'm glad I found you all : )
I bought a live rock today and there's something really weird (to me) on it.
I took a picture of it- would you like to see it? ; )
It looks like a shiny black marble~

Thank you!
 

Attachments

  • blackballonliverock.jpg
    blackballonliverock.jpg
    40.7 KB · Views: 95
I agree... it looks like a shiny black marble! :)

Going to need a bigger picture to really give you any help. Or at least from a different angle or something. Standard questions.... is it soft or hard? Does it retract at all if you touch it? Any change between lights off and on?

Oh... and welcome to AquariumAdvice!
 
I'd say Valonia, bubble algae. Most people reccomend removal as it can spread like wildfire. Be careful though, to remove it, make sure you get right underneath it with a knife and flick it off without bursting it. It's believed that bursting it helps it to spread. Best to do it outside the tank, then if it bursts (jelly stuff everywhere), you could just rinse the rock in tank water, but over the sink.

On the other hand I had some in my 50g tank for about 9 months and never spread off the rock it was on. I quite liked the look of it.

Mithrax crabs eat them apparently.

Ad
 
I researched the Valonia, bubble algae- and found it almost positive that's what it is.
Thank you all so much! I would've been searching forever without your help : )
I'll see you all on the boards...
Sharonar22
 
Try and wiggle it a little to remove it from the rock. Try very hard not to pop it while it is in the water. It will release spors and spread.
 
I had a bad infestation of bubble algae in my tank a year ago. I traced it back to being the wrong type of sand on my bottom. I had to tear the tank down remove the sand and i also scrubbed all my live rock to get rid of it. Ever since i switch to the Crushed Coral bottom i have only had one bubble show up and its gone. If its just one bubble its not bad.... when your whole tank is covered with it you'll know something isn't right.
 
I'm kinda guessing that the fact you stripped the tank and scrubbed all the rock had a major impact on the bubble algae - moreso than your choice of sand. How did you trace the problem back to your sand?
 
The more research I did online and the more people I talked to I found out somewhere that the algae loves silica... And I had nothing but algae problems from the start with that sand. I later found out that i was miss informed by the manufacture of the so called sand I used (which was play sand) They told me it had no silica in it. Since the crushed coral I have only seen one bubble and thats it.. Probably one I missed. All my live rock is colorful and my fish are doing wonderful. Don't trust the play sands though is what i learned... Either go crushed coral or Aragonite Reef Sand. If I would have used those from day one.. I personally feel I would have never had the out break. But who knows it could have been something different all together. But with the change the tank has grown 3 times the rate it was before. So im happy haha.
 
Hello :eek:)

I took the rock out of the tank and flicked it off. (It was on it before I bought it- and haven't seen any sign of anything like it anywhere else, so I think I'm good.
There is something else on a different rock though, that has been there since I got it- it looks like a white hard flower- kind-of square in shape.....with what looks like really short whiskers - my daughter tells me it's a stalagmite.
Sound familiar?
I don't know much about sand either, sorry, although I just called my LFS about all this brown stuff on it and they said to 'stir it up'
 
sharonar22 said:
...
I don't know much about sand either, sorry, although I just called my LFS about all this brown stuff on it and they said to 'stir it up'
Click to expand...

:shock:

That wasn't good advice from them at all. Unless the sand bed is super duper thin, you really don't want to mess with the layers. Vacuuming the top 1/2" or so is fine every once in a while, but "stirring it up" will just release all the nasties back into your tank before they've had a chance to fully break down. That could then lead to another cycle, with spikes in ammonia and nitrites. Granted... I think your tank is new, so there's not much to stir up, but down the road I wouldn't recommend it.

I'm guessing the brown stuff - if it's like rust - are just diatoms, which are normal for new tanks. They'll eventually burn themselves out. If your cycle is complete, then adding a good clean up crew of astrea or trochus snails would be another way of getting rid of them. Trochus snails will devour the stuff in no time.

If the brown stuff is slimy and sheet-like, then it's most likely cyanobacteria which normally is from too many nutrients - either from overfeeding, lack of water changes, or using tap water with high nitrates or phosphates in it. Better water quality, as well as siphoning out the cyano along with a little sand, is a good first order of defense against the stuff. If you continue having issues, then do some searching here on "cyanobacteria" and you'll find a lot of good advice!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
Should I change my gravel?
Replies
4
Views
308
Aiken Drum
Aiken Drum
af2018
Deer tick
Replies
4
Views
173
af2018
af2018
af2018
I have pregnant mollies but I don’t know how to tell when to put them by themselves.
Replies
1
Views
326
Andy Sager
Andy Sager
N
What is this?
Replies
5
Views
430
Andy Sager
Andy Sager
T
newbie overwhelmed, am I doing this right?
Replies
6
Views
506
Andy Sager
Andy Sager

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom