Algae?

Tom McCoy

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22 days into my first cycle which is fishless. Using krill granule for my ammonia spike and a little help with bio spira. 20 gallon tall tank with about 23 lbs of live rock 40lb of live sand and a reef octopus 1000 hob and keeping up with weekly water changes. I noticed a white/clear algae growing on my rock. Sponge maybe but not sure. Peramiters are NO2 5ppm NO3 0ppm CA2 480 KH 214.8 ppm pH 8.2. Any input would help!
 
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Tom McCoy

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Tom McCoy

Tom McCoy

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Yeah man it's weird looking but do you think this could be a problems
 

saltyfilmfolks

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Yea It does look like sponge. Lots of structures like sponge. Funny, sponge does not generally respond to food like that as far as I know. It could I suppose if it has other stuff the sponge likes.(some feed yeast to sponges)
I would recommend getting the extra food out btw, live rock live sand, the tank is cycling. Yea feeding it is good, but I think you're good to go.
Does it blow off easily?

@Lionfish Lair Would you take a look?
 

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If it's not a sponge, it's a tunicate. You need to address that food/krill buildup. That shouldn't be there like that and you're going to run into issues in the future. You need to feed less and/or differently and clean up more and perhaps look into a clean up crew and check for dead spots. With that much stuff lying around, you're going to have a lot of nuisance critters showing up to the party.
 

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22 days into my first cycle which is fishless. Using krill granule for my ammonia spike...

Given the timing on this, I'm going to throw a curve-ball in here - I'm thinking it's more likely to be bacterial in nature. Are you using established liverock, or dry rock?

~Bruce
 
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Tom McCoy

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Live rock from my LFS is in my tank along with "live sand"
 

Lionfish Lair

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I totally missed the cycling part. That's embarrassing....

I use food as a means to cycle the tank as well, but I use a bag so I can remove the food later and it doesn't hide everywhere.

cycle-jpg.305080
 

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With the sponge covering the food it's not being cycled out nitrate might not test accurately? IDK, just my first thought when I read this. If you want to remove it a tooth brush works well.
Get a lid
Qq a ff $iiiiiii><gush h uu Itty uu utter v::

If it's not a sponge, it's a tunicate. You need to address that food/krill buildup. That shouldn't be there like that and you're going to run into issues in the future. You need to feed less and/or differently and clean up more and perhaps look into a clean up crew and check for dead spots. With that much stuff lying around, you're going to have a lot of nuisance critters showing up to the party.

22 days into my first cycle which is fishless. Using krill granule for my ammonia spike and a little help with bio spira. 20 gallon tall tank with about 23 lbs of live rock 40lb of live sand and a reef octopus 1000 hob and keeping up with weekly water changes. I noticed a white/clear algae growing on my rock. Sponge maybe but not sure. Peramiters are NO2 5ppm NO3 0ppm CA2 480 KH 214.8 ppm pH 8.2. Any input would help!
 
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Tom McCoy

Tom McCoy

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Honestly it looks like more of a bacteria but what do I know. I blew all of it around with my power head and kind of spread the food out. I'll update you guys in a couple days.
 
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Tom McCoy

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So what ever it was is slowly going away but I do have some more questions. I have this brown algae that has been on my rock ever since I first started the cycle and just wondering if it will go away on its own or will I have to scrape it off? Still detecting 5 ppm of nitrite so I'm assuming the tank is not finished it's cycle. Would it be time to get a clean up crew? Thanks for the replies!
 

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It's not a sponge it's a fungus. You not suppose to leave a pile of uneaten food in a new tank. Well come to think of it in any tank. You also don't need to feed the tank that much With live Rock and live sand you should of been good to go. Adding food is more for dry rock tanks. With live rocks there is so much life on it it shortens the cycle. Also you aren't suppose to do water changes during the cycle it slows down the cycle. I would siphon all that food out and just wait a week and rested. Ammonia should all be gone. Don't add food or anything else to this tank until ammonia is gone. After ammonia gone test nitrates if high do water change. If super high do large water change ok.
 
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Tom McCoy

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Well it's too late now I've done weekly water changes Weekly during the cycle and haven't seen anything really out of the "norm". Just waiting for nitrites to drop. And i don't see the difference between a little pile of food and people using a rotting piece of shrimp as an ammonia source?
 

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