Rock Coloration ... Doesn't look like coralline?

Justin Hartmann

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So I just corrected a medium sized hair algae outbreak in my tank, all clear now. With that said this may have been there before but, I think its new within the last three days or so. The algae has been gone for about a week and I don't remember noticing it when it cleared (I was doing plenty of looking at my once again clear rock too haha). It is like a red stain on the rock that does not appear to have any texture per say (if so very thin). I wouldn't think it would be coralline because of the color and I have not seen any in my tank up to this point with the exception, I did notice some on my crab's shells recently (though that is the purple).

I will attach a photo of what I am talking about, my apologies for the blues, though it does not wash out the color of the rock stain that I am reef-erring to (so that is the color I see). It is the large almost streak on the rock farthest forward in the picture. You can also see it in the rock in the back (just to the right of the hammer). These are the only two spots in the tank that it is present. Any help identifying this is appreciated! I don't think it is a big deal but would like to learn and know.

Tank Parameters at last testing (4 - 5 days ago):
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 80
Ammonia: 0
PH: 7.8 - 8.0 Color is kind of between the two and hard to tell for sure
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5
Magnesium: 1260
Calcium: 420
Alk: 9dKh (not sure why it is much higher than "normal." test before about 5 days before was 8 - 8.5)

I am not dosing anything at the moment because there has not been a need. Water changes keep them up.

Rock Coloration.jpg
 

Salty1962

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May be the beginning of Red Turf Algae, Take rock out and put some H2O2 on it before it gets too far along;) What about your Po4?
 

Katrina71

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I might have this too. I thought it was cyano.
 
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Justin Hartmann

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Yeah thats kind of what I was thinking too, that sucks I just lowered my nutrients and did like 40 percent total water changes over 3 or four weeks to get rid of the other algae. I guess I will hit it with peroxide and hope it gets it fast.
 

Katrina71

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Please let me know what you find out. Also how to get rid of it. It's only on one rock in our tank.
 
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Justin Hartmann

Justin Hartmann

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I do not have a phosphate test at the moment I am probably going to get one tomorrow as that may be the culprit. I am running a GFO right now but will probably stop here soon and see what happens. I was looking at the red sea no3 - po4 - x tonight and my try it just for fun. See how it works.
 

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I'm really new. You'll have to break it down simply for me please.
 

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I do not have a phosphate test at the moment I am probably going to get one tomorrow as that may be the culprit. I am running a GFO right now but will probably stop here soon and see what happens. I was looking at the red sea no3 - po4 - x tonight and my try it just for fun. See how it works.

Fwiw in my 55 the po4 is .20
I don't have cyano.

How did you get rid of the Gha?
Does the red stuff come off easily?
 
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Justin Hartmann

Justin Hartmann

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Okay, that is no problem. So basically there are a few top things that contribute to algae outbreaks. High nitrates, high phosphates (these are the nutrients that I was reef-erring to). You probably know nitrates as the end result of the nitrogen cycle from when/if you cycled your tank. The main way people get rid of high amounts of nitrate (what I did) is water changes. That is why over a span of time I changed out like 40 - 50% of my water to export those nitrates. Mine were high at about 30ppm if I remember. Phosphates is another factor and many believe (I really don't know) that if you use new dry rock that it will often leech out phosphates into your water unless cured or bleached. From what I understand it can also come from your water source (if you are not using RODI = reverse osmosis deionized water) and I think can also come from decaying matter but don't quote me on that. If your tank is pretty new it probably would not come from your sand, but over time if the sand is not vacuumed it can store up in the sand and possibly release into your water that way. Basically a lot of ways phosphate can enter your system. Also silicates in the sand can lead to an algae problem as well. This is where I mentioned that I am using GFO to reduce the phosphate in my tank. You can google it but its basically a filter media like carbon that binds up the phosphate and you can export it when you change it out. I am looking into a liquid product from red sea called NO3 - PO4 - X that is supposed to help grow bacteria in high oxygen areas that will eat the phosphate and Nitrates so they do not build as fast if a all. I do not know if it will work but would be interesting and I might try that. You can google that product name too if you are curious.

Aside from the nutrients a top reason a lot of outbreaks happen is lighting. This can be direct sunlight, to long of a lights on period (with your reef lights I believe they believe that yellow and I cannot remember the other one is really liked by the algae). So with this you can turn down or off those spectrums if your light allows you to do so or you could lessen the amount of time a day your lights are on. Also another factor that lead to high nutrients I forgot to mention before is over feeding the tank and it all breaks down leading to higher levels of nitrate and phosphate. Getting these things "in control" will a lot of times help the problem. Though once you have an outbreak it is harder to get it controlled with these methods because it feeds off the nutrients faster than you can export them. So it is recommended that you scrape, pull or any other means to get as much as you can out while getting the things mentioned before in control. Thats how I got rid of my green hair issue, that and some emerald crabs which ate all of it in like three days. Then my parameters are in better control and I have not seen that come back yet.

Now one other thing that you will have to google as I am not as versed which was mentioned before is using hydrogen Peroxide, same as you get for cuts. It will attack the algae and break it down. It is interesting and worth a google again if you are curious. I will probably try that tomorrow as it is cheap and easy since I have a small amount on my rock. I also would say you should watch this video it has some good information in it with pictures to help. I hope I am correct in everything, but like I said it worked for me so it should be good. Hope this helps.

 
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Justin Hartmann

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In short I got my nitrates down and started GFO in case of phosphate problems, I really should get a test. Once nitrates were below 5 I added two emerald crabs and they ate it all within three days. Although now it seems like they are picking on my micromussa (acans), I did not see them do it but im pretty sure they drug it off its spot. I found it on its side in a cave. I will be glueing those down tomorrow. It did not seem like mine was a light issue or anything else as it has not been back since. I will probably try hydrogen peroxide tomorrow so I will see how easy it is to get rid of and update here.
 

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Excellent.
Defiantly grab a phosphate test. You'll want it as you should make sure to test the no3 and po4 while you do this because you don't want to strip all the nutrints out of the tank as I'm sure you know.

Use caution carbon dosing with the Red Sea product as will lower you nitrates first.

If you feed the the fish well and even spot feed the coral freely while you carbon dose and run gfo I think it will even out your nutrints.

Also keep in mind the carbon dosing also feed the bacteria also feeds the cyano so you may see a bloom at first. So you might want to stray with very low doses. I think Red Sea also reccomended this.

It should be no problem soon.
 
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Justin Hartmann

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Awesome thanks for all that info, yeah I did know about trying not to strip all the nutrients out so I will just add a phosphate test to my list for tomorrow. Thats good to know that the nitrates go first and also that it will feed cyano I did not know that and probably would have lost confidence real fast if you did not mention it. I will for sure start low and see how things go, I am hoping it works well or I will continue to try other things until I find whats best for my system. Now that brings up a good point, would you run GFO while carbon dosing? Or is this kind of overdoing it and the GFO can come out? Thanks again
 

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Check the phosphate first really. Then determine if you need the gfo.

If you have higher then reccomended po4 yes it's safe and ok to run.
If you need star slowly adding a bit more every other week it at water changes. That's adding slow and makes it easy too.

If your running too much gfo you'll know fright away.after testing.

And your safe to take it all out at once too. In 24 hrs test again and you'll see a true representation of how much phosphate is actually in the system.

Then determine if you need it.

I think a key to balancing a tanks nutrints is considering how healthy you need to feed the tank to keep it health. Take that amount and figure out how to remove that much..
testing and trial and error will guide the way.
That way you won't chase the numbers just track them. More in. More out. More out more gfo or vinegar.
 
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Justin Hartmann

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Late update, busy with the holiday and catching up at work. Anyways, good news is that I looked at the tank the day after and the red spots were about half gone. I decided I would just wait and see what happened naturally. Within the next two days it was 100% gone and has not made a return.

I think when I corrected my water quality it just dissipated on its own naturally (which is encouraging). I have noticed that my algae that had been a small problem has not really came back. It used to come back within a few days, but all has been gone!!

@Katrina71 how is your tank doing?
 

Katrina71

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Late update, busy with the holiday and catching up at work. Anyways, good news is that I looked at the tank the day after and the red spots were about half gone. I decided I would just wait and see what happened naturally. Within the next two days it was 100% gone and has not made a return.

I think when I corrected my water quality it just dissipated on its own naturally (which is encouraging). I have noticed that my algae that had been a small problem has not really came back. It used to come back within a few days, but all has been gone!!

@Katrina71 how is your tank doing?
Great. My cyano never looked so good!
 

Katrina71

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I am not so lucky. Mine is apparently healthier than ever. I'm trying to wait it out a little.
 

Katrina71

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Glad to hear yours is gone!
 
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