Red Velvet Looking Stuff

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LoveLEE143

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Sep 30, 2004
Messages
46
Location
Atlanta, Georgia
Once again a new guy here just learning all I can from you experts. Is this a good or a bad thing to have. There is a red velvet looking coating on two of my live rocks. It is spreading to the nearby live sand. Just curious. My tank setup is in my signature. I forgot to take a picture before I came to work this morning. Thank you for all of your help in advance.


P.S. I find this site very addicting I check the new posts at least once every half hour. Now I find myself torn between Bimmerforums.com, MBWorld.org and here.
 
Sounds like cyanobacteria...it indicates phosphates are present in the water.

I see no mention of a skimmer...are you running skimmerless? How new is the tank? How often are your water changes?
Have you tested phosphates (you should) and if so what's the level at?
 
Agree, sound like cyno.
Just to add a few things. You need to check you water to see what the PO4 level is. Let us know what the level it. Then the following can be addressed.
1. Do you use RO water? If not your should make the switch and work on doing some water changes. If you already use RO water, test your source water. You may need to add a deionizer to it. This is the most important step.
2. Siphon as much of the cyno as you can. Breaking it up only helps it to spread. You need to do this as frequently as possible.
3. Review your feeding habit. Are you overfeeding? Do the fish eat what you put in at feeding time within a few minutes, or is there food lying around the bottom after? Also, if you use frozen, make sure to drain the as much of the packing juice as you can before adding.
4. Do you have adequate water movement? Any dead spaces in the tank? Cyno has a harder time setting up in a system with brisk water movement.
5.Like malkore asked, do you have a skimmer? If so, is it producing daily amount of dark thick "skimmage'? Adding or upgrading a skimmer may help.
You can also run a PO4 sponge which will help in the short run, but you need to address the other underlying causes.
These are few of the key things that feed a cyno outbreak.
 
Here are some pictures of what i am talking about. I am going to do a water test later today and I will post the results.
 
Yup, thats cyno alright.
I addressed some ways to combat it. The first thing you need to do is get a PO4 test kit and let us know what the result is.
Also do some searching through the forum for "cynobacteria", many discussion threads on the subject.
 
Sorry to ear about your cyno problems. Many of us have delt with the same issues. I agree with everything Maklore and Q-shark said. I just finished up with the getting rid of mine. I used a prodct called Chemi-Clean by Boyd Enterprises, INC. It worked great! Two treatments and my cyno is completely gone. This is just a band-aid, however. Like Q-shark said, you need to find the root of the problem and treat accordingly. Good luck in the battle...Lando
 
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