What's this brown stuff on my rock?

[BummersReef]

Yes another one of those " what is this on my live rock?" Question:
At first I thought it was diatom but don't think so anymore. It's getting more and more pronounced. It's only on one rock ... Our tank has both dry rock in process of getting live and rock that was bought as fresh live rock form LFS. It is one one of the pieces of fresh live from LFS. Same rock has leather sponges and a sac of box sponges (i think). It is beige in color - have not tried to scrub off in case it's something good - have looked at lionfish lair hitchhiker list and don't see anything similar
Tank is 10 weeks old - it went through diatom then cyano and GFA growth and we thought that cycle was on downswing but today I am seeing new diatom and more cyano ... Suddenly seems to be going thru another installment of the uglies. Parameters have been good - 0 Ammon and nitrate with trace nitrate .... A little phosphate ... Checking kh regular and it has been a steady 9
Thanks for any help
We have a few hardy corals but a couple are looking stressed now ... Leather not looking good for a week and just today Kenya tree is all shrieked up. Xenia mushroom and star polyp looking good

 

[jsker]

It is the ever on going battle with algae. My system is looking the best it has in the past 5 months but I still have the green cayno starting to pop up. I have to test today and see what it out of balance, fix it and wait two to three week to see if I have got it right:)
What are you feeding your corals?

 

[BummersReef]

Do you think it's some kind of algae?
I am feeding Reef Nutrition phyto-feast and oyster-feast -Once a day one or the other , usually phyto-feast as oyster stuff seems to have such big pieces. A nice big squirt each day ... 125 gallon tank with about 125 in sump and refug

 

[cloak]

How does it feel to the touch? Is it slimy, somewhat firm, abrasive etc? Does it come off the rocks with ease? If not, my guess would be a sponge of some sort.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Does it have holes? Looks like an encrusting sponge.

 

[USMC4Life]

It's a sponge not algae. I have some on some of my rocks and they vary in color from clear white and yellow-ish orange.

 

[jsker]

Do you think it's some kind of algae?
I am feeding Reef Nutrition phyto-feast and oyster-feast -Once a day one or the other , usually phyto-feast as oyster stuff seems to have such big pieces. A nice big squirt each day ... 125 gallon tank with about 125 in sump and refug

I mix a couple of drops in with my frozen daily feedings, so it disturbs in the water instead of clumping. I am surprised with you nitrates being so low the you getting canyo. Are you running any type of carbon dosing yet? What kind of cleaning crew do you have in place. Besides adjustments to my chemical managment I dropped in about 50 hermit craabs, snails, to help out my turbo snals and that seam to help out a lot with my 72 gal DT
Hince my earlier statement "the never ending battle"

 

[jsker]

My bad I was not looking at the picture that close @USMC4Life nailed it.

 

[USMC4Life]

They are good indicators if your tank is healthy. I noticed that when my water quality starts to drift they start to shrink.

 

[USMC4Life]

All good @jsker

 

[BummersReef]

How does it feel to the touch? Is it slimy, somewhat firm, abrasive etc? Does it come off the rocks with ease? If not, my guess would be a sponge of some sort.

I haven't wanted to mess with it ... But have to do water change today or tomorrow and will touch it then - it looks slimy but won't know for sure until I get hands in there

 

[BummersReef]

Hubby touched it - it's hard, doesn't move at all
??? Sponge?

 

[BummersReef]

Does it have holes? Looks like an encrusting sponge.

No holes that I see

 

[BummersReef]

I mix a couple of drops in with my frozen daily feedings, so it disturbs in the water instead of clumping. I am surprised with you nitrates being so low the you getting canyo. Are you running any type of carbon dosing yet? What kind of cleaning crew do you have in place. Besides adjustments to my chemical managment I dropped in about 50 hermit craabs, snails, to help out my turbo snals and that seam to help out a lot with my 72 gal DT
Hince my earlier statement "the never ending battle"

@jsker - mix the oyster stuff in with food?
No carbon dosing yet
The cyano had almost disappeared but it is back .... On the newer rocks
CUC is 3 emeralds 4 trochus snails 3 red legged hermit crabs and we impulsively added a diadema urchin 4 days ago. Does that seem like a lean crew? LFS was out of turbos
Kenya tree was so happy at first but he is super grumpy now

 

[jsker]

I mix my frozen food for a couple of days in a small beaker with 100 ml of RO/DI water the add my frozen and 4 to 5 drops of Oyster feast, R.O.E. and Roti feast. I feed LRF reef frenzy mysis, and some of my homemade food, I also add these products and bind them with the seachem focus.

I have about 20 hermit crabs, 3 turbo snails, and 15 snails, 2 conchs, 1 Halloween crab, 1 sally light foot crab in my 72 gallon. My suggestion would be to bump up the CUC. Your tank being a newer setup is going to go through the ups and down of algae blooms until it gets established. Think of it this way, every time you add something, it going to throw everything off slightly until the system adjusts to the new load. For example adding a fish or two, you are feeding more and the fish is pooping more so the system is going to have to adjust for the new bio load. That being said you will make adjustments to Ca, Mg, Alk, possibly trace elements for corals. With the live stock you will start looking at ways to export No3's and Po4's.

water changes are a temporary fix to export No3's and point of sale's along with adding Ca, Mg, Alk, adding trace elements. Last September & October I was battling phosphates and nitrates, and using the common practice of water change, of doing 10% water changes every other day. The No3'3 and Po4's would go down then right back up, one thing I notice was my corals stated looking much better for the reason I was replenishing the trace elements that they need via the salt. I the process I striped the bio load and stress the fish. I lost 4 of my original fish to ich and tried to add fish and the system was stress and lost those fish. Then asking question, reading, came to the conclusion the I striped the system and I need to start dosing elements for the corals and I also need to start dosing some kind of carbon product along with cutting back the water changes to once a week. At this point I started dosing with a auto doser reef colors and bought the test kit for the colors.

I started dosing Red Sea No Po x for the nitrates and phosphates and that was helping but not enough for the phosphates. I started dosing Rowa (phos removal/GFO) the Rowa both together did a good job. I also did not add any live stock for about 30 days. In late November I add the fish back and a bunch of coral frags, then let the system ride for about 2 months. The corals started browning and I was losing arcos also may corals were growing very slow, my rock was gray also the tank did not look healthy. Back to the drawing board, I started asking question here again and also spoke with one of the on line site I was buying product through and they recommended a different product line to start dosing the Balling Method. I usually have a busy schedule and this made since for me. I went out and bought a couple of auto dosers and started using the pre mixed Balling Method product and with in two weeks my total system started looking better.

February 2016 I pulled the No Po x off line and went with a different brand that was like No Po x and also had a better result. At the end of February I switch salts to match the new products line and the system was still improving. In March I upgraded my lights and wow the system really started to look like it was coming to life. I was running a simple H.O.B. Filter with a protein skimmer built into the H.O.B. In mid March I decided I would go with a sump since in all of the years being into saltwater I never ran a sump and want to finely try a summp. I built a sump and went on line with the sump the beginning of April. The next battle of Green hair, red cayno, and daitoms started again caused by high No3's, and Po4's, very frustrated at this point. I was still dosing GFO in the sump flow tray and a syntactic carbon product and the tank was out of control with Algae. Went back to reading and more questions, and figured I would give the H2O2 dosing a try, it helped a little bit but not the results that I wanted.

Mid June I started reading and asking questions again, and decided that I would get the bio pellets a try them in a small reactor. It worked for my system and I have my No3's under control and using GFO for my phosphates under control. The tank looks great for now and I am going to let things ride to see were I am at in 30 days, I am also trying bi monthly water changes since now that I am dosing the Balling method, bio pellets, syntactic carbon products and a small amount of trace elements use the same product line for the reason If have about 45 to 50 frags in my system that seem to eat up the trace elements from the balling method and salt. This is how my system look now. My corals have doubled and even tripled in size and the color has really come out.

The reason this post is so long is that my thinking is, telling you my story will give you some idea what worked for me. Also it may help you to understand that you will find your systems happy place:) and it takes time.

 

[reeftanker17]

They are good indicators if your tank is healthy. I noticed that when my water quality starts to drift they start to shrink.

I am super new to the hobby but I've seen the same with my sponges!

 

[USMC4Life]

You can see a sponge in this pic.

 

[BummersReef]

@jsker you are so helpful! Some of what you said I don't understand ... Yet. But I am still very new to all this. How do you use the GFO? Is it in one of those media reactors?
We have a really big sump and refug (separate) in the basement ... Each with about 60 gallons in them - so plenty of room to add stuff. Media reactor next on our list of stuff to buy. Also filter socks as a water change kicks up so much floating stuff that we have no way of pulling out. Have a big skimmer in sump

 

[jsker]

@jsker you are so helpful! Some of what you said I don't understand ... Yet. But I am still very new to all this. How do you use the GFO? Is it in one of those media reactors?
We have a really big sump and refug (separate) in the basement ... Each with about 60 gallons in them - so plenty of room to add stuff. Media reactor next on our list of stuff to buy. Also filter socks as a water change kicks up so much floating stuff that we have no way of pulling out. Have a big skimmer in sump

I figured this would help along your journey, and you would have a aha moment or two. Plus you guys are from Michigan. I ran the GFO in a reactor and it was a pain with the grains so small and having to use a filter pad to keep the grains from leaving the reactor then having to change the filter pad once it got clogged, now I run the Bio Pellets in in the reactor. Now I use women's ankle stocking since I use all of the wife's old pantyhose and use about a half a cut of GFO and toss the hose filled with GFO in the filter flow through of my sump.

I am using filter socks and change them out every 3 to 4 days. I make about 90 each at a time for about .12 cents a piece instead of the $6 + dollar each when I first bought. last batch was powder blue, and I found that the throw ring work great for holding the socks in place. My parents were in the fabric business so I learned how to sew and have the machines to knock out the socks. I go to Joann's with a coupon and buy the craft felt, usually 60% off.

 

[BummersReef]

I figured this would help along your journey, and you would have a aha moment or two. Plus you guys are from Michigan. I ran the GFO in a reactor and it was a pain with the grains so small and having to use a filter pad to keep the grains from leaving the reactor then having to change the filter pad once it got clogged, now I run the Bio Pellets in in the reactor. Now I use women's ankle stocking since I use all of the wife's old pantyhose and use about a half a cut of GFO and toss the hose filled with GFO in the filter flow through of my sump.

I am using filter socks and change them out every 3 to 4 days. I make about 90 each at a time for about .12 cents a piece instead of the $6 + dollar each when I first bought. last batch was powder blue, and I found that the throw ring work great for holding the socks in place. My parents were in the fabric business so I learned how to sew and have the machines to knock out the socks. I go to Joann's with a coupon and buy the craft felt, usually 60% off.

Anyone who makes their own socks is my kind of person! I make my own socks too .... But the kind for feet! [emoji851] GFO info very helpful ... As it is exactly what we are trying to sort out right now thank u!