Rock turning purple (1 Viewer)

[nelson6500]

My tank has only been up for 2 months I have a shelf rock that gets hit by the Kessil tuna 360 light for 8 hours a day, Is this normal for the rock to become purple and is this a problem ?





Thanks, Matt

 

[webster1234]

Is that stuff slimy and blows off with a turkey baster? If so, then it is cyanobacteria. Your tank is still cycling. Check your nutrient levels and siphon out. It will keep coming back for a while until things stabilize. Do you have any corals in there? If not, then reduce your light exposure time to 4-6 hrs. This stuff feeds off of light and reducing the time will help also.

Did you seed the tank with any bacteria when you started it up?

What are your nutrient levels, esp phosphate and nitrate? Are ammonia and nitrites zero? Any fish in the system? If so how many? How many gallons is the tank?

 

[Ostentum]

That appears to be cyano, and yes its a problem. What are you using for flow in your tank

 

[nelson6500]

I seeded the tank with fritz zymes 9, the tank is 90 gallons with the sump.
All my ammonia and nitites levels are zero, I just started running a gfo reactor last week.

There are 9 fish in the tank, there are duncans,hammers,leather corals,xenia, anemones in the tank.

I have 2 mp 40s moving the water in the tank.

 

[webster1234]

That's a lot of livestock for 2 months. Your tank is still cycling. Check your PO4 and NO3 and post them up here.

 

[Clownfish Chris]

That's a lot of livestock for 2 months. Your tank is still cycling. Check your PO4 and NO3 and post them up here.

I completely agree. What caused you to run gfo? With a new tank like this, gfo can be a great way to reduce phosphate but you didn't post phosphate test results. I would not run gfo unless you have high algae growth AND high phosphate numbers. Even then, there are probably other better solutions like reduced feeding, and better nutrient export. Gfo can be a harsh chemical for corals.

As as far as the cyano, it would benefit more from nutrient export. Do lots of small water changes removing as much cyano and algae as possible. Increase skimming. Increase water flow.

 

[Fish Keeper82]

I had a bad Cyano outbreak about a year ago. It's the worst ive seen actually in pictures. This happened with very high flow and i cant rember exact but levels were low in the neighborhood of PO4 of .01ppm and Nitrate of 0.5ppm which is very low. It was so bad it grew on the koralia 1500 gph powerheads thmselves.The cause of my Cyano was the heavy use of Selcon. I was using it every day some time 2 times a day because my fish loved it even though the instruction said to use it like once a week or something to that effect. So even if your parameter test low and you have good flow my bet is feeding is the initial cause because of how thick it looks.
What i would do is siphon it out and do a few water changes, nothing too drastic like a few 10-20 percent water changes. I would stop feeding pellet and flake (I suspect its your main food source) switch to frozen food till you get it under control. Over feeding pellet of flake is much worse than feeding too much frozen. They are super concentrated and break down to more nutriens than the frozen. If you should be adding food supplements like Selcon stop. I dont use Selcon but like once a month now. Too much of a good thing can be bad. The absolute last thing you should do is add chemicals to get rid of it.

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[nelson6500]

I only feed them larry's and nori

 

[Fish Keeper82]

I only feed them larry's and nori

Post your phosphate and nitrate results maybe we can make some sense out of it.
It's pretty hard to over feed larry's and nori but with 9 fish in such a young system it may be the cause.

 

[Reefahholic]

Cyanobacteria can be an issue for many reefers both noob's and veterans alike.

Cyano is fueled by two things:
1. Nutrients
2. Organics

If you want to kill the bacteria, you must take away their food source (excess neutrients and organics). This is the only long-term solution. Using antibiotic therapy is fast (results in 1-2 days), but the problem will return yet again and actually be even worse. After the antibiotics nail their target, the decaying dead cells become more food that spurs re-growth and continues their life cycle.

So how do you deal with it? Well, I personally would remove 5 of the 9 fish until your system matures enough to handle that bioload. Then manually remove what you can by siphoning it out. I'm a big fan of DrTims products and highly recommend you use these two products afterwards.

1. Re-Fresh (10-14 days)
2. Waste-Away (2 weeks)

Read the instructions exactly. Problem solved. You can thank me later.


Best of luck to you.

 

[nelson6500]

Cyanobacteria can be an issue for many reefers both noob's and veterans alike.

Cyano is fueled by two things:
1. Nutrients
2. Organics

If you want to kill the bacteria, you must take away their food source (excess neutrients and organics). This is the only long-term solution. Using antibiotic therapy is fast (results in 1-2 days), but the problem will return yet again and actually be even worse. After the antibiotics nail their target, the decaying dead cells become more food that spurs re-growth and continues their life cycle.

So how do you deal with it? Well, I personally would remove 5 of the 9 fish until your system matures enough to handle that bioload. Then manually remove what you can by siphoning it out. I'm a big fan of DrTims products and highly recommend you use these two products afterwards.

1. Re-Fresh (10-14 days)
2. Waste-Away (2 weeks)

Read the instructions exactly. Problem solved. You can thank me later.


Best of luck to you.

Thanks Jared I'll give that a try when I come back from out of town.



I have a bubble Magus curve 7 skimmer it's running great, I always do a 20 gallon water change every 2 week.

 

[malira]

Thanks Jared I'll give that a try when I come back from out of town.



I have a bubble Magus curve 7 skimmer it's running great, I always do a 20 gallon water change every 2 week.

For another way twillard on reef2reef did great thread on using peroxide to control and eliminate cyano. It's simple, 1 ml per 10 gallons of total water volume two times a day in a high flow area. Away from livestock. Dose for two weeks, if the cyano hasn't significantly reduced after 7 days then it's most likely a red dino. I'll post the thread in a little while. It's long.

Back at it! Peroxide vrs cyanobacteria | REEF2REEF Saltwater and Reef Aquarium Forum

The first 150 post are just getting set up the trail starts around post #170. Dosing around 300 to 350.
It's worth the read.

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[Clownfish Chris]

I agree that all of these treatments and suggestions are useful in treatment of cyano. In fact, I have even used some myself successfully. I will say however that these treatments are no substitute for proper stocking and maintenance. The facts are that you have a very heavily stocked tank for its age and that you are skimming with a decent skimmer. You also state you are running GFO. we do not know how much you are skimming and what your nitrate and phosphate levels are. Those numbers will help immensely in finding the problem.

You can take a pill for a headache. Then you get another and take another pill. Eventually you will have liver or kidney damage. If you find out why you are getting headaches and make the appropriate change, you will be healthier than if you take a pill. Diagnose and fix the problem rather than treat the symptoms.

 

[malira]

I agree that all of these treatments and suggestions are useful in treatment of cyano. In fact, I have even used some myself successfully. I will say however that these treatments are no substitute for proper stocking and maintenance. The facts are that you have a very heavily stocked tank for its age and that you are skimming with a decent skimmer. You also state you are running GFO. we do not know how much you are skimming and what your nitrate and phosphate levels are. Those numbers will help immensely in finding the problem.

You can take a pill for a headache. Then you get another and take another pill. Eventually you will have liver or kidney damage. If you find out why you are getting headaches and make the appropriate change, you will be healthier than if you take a pill. Diagnose and fix the problem rather than treat the symptoms.

Wow, that was a great anology. I totally agree. The tank is too new to start with any treatment.

Get your tank in order first. You have about 6 to 8 months worth tank "cycling." There is a natural progression in tanks. You jumped that progression with adding 9 fish so soon. Let your tank settle down and focus on nutrient export.

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