Help ID this

[Fredro84]

Hello, I am new to the hobby and I am still learning a lot. I bought a biocube 29 off craigslist and the dude gave me a bunch of live rock and sand with it. The problem is, with it came a lot of hitchhikers. I have a ton of vermetid snails, bristle worms, and he did tell me he had aptasia at one point. Anyways, I need help ID this slime. I want to say it's cyanobacteria, but eveytime I google image it, it doesn't look like red slime to me. Also, from what I've seen in pictures, cyanobacteria is mainly in the sand. I don't have this slime in my sand.

 

[reef thief]

Can't ID it but I would consider killing the rock and the sand and start over with dead. You have the chance now. Down the road not so much.

 

[Fredro84]

Thanks reef thief. I am going to kill everything and start it fresh. I don't like not knowing what's all going in there.

 

[reef thief]

To the drive way!

 

[Walla2GSP]

All my cyano develops on the side of the tank, I have only ever had one cyano bloom on the sand. It doesn't look like cyano from this picture, but it's really hard to see anything in the picture. The red cyano I tend to see is a maroon red color with a sort of slime consistency. Killing the rock is kind of a personally preference, I like as much live stuff on the rock when I put it in the tank as possible, but that does come at the risk of hitchhikers, but I have a very diverse eco-system compared to people that cook their rocks.

 

[2smokes]

That pink thing is a harmless sponge not cyano.If you have bristleworms and serpent stars in it i wouldnt kill the rock.They are beneficial .I would just cure the rock in seawater for a while.Whats the reason in buying live rock then kill it?If you want dead rock you buy dry dead rock.And aiptasia you will get it anyway from the corals you will buy.Theres no way you can get rid of the aiptasia infestation in this hobby.

 

[Fredro84]

Thanks so much 2smokes. The only reason I'm willing to kill the rocks is because of the vermetid snails. There are so many of them that they are even growing on the stony part of my LPS.

 

[2smokes]

You dont have to kill the entire rock just because of the vermetid snails.Vermetid snails arent as bad pests as aiptasia,i let then grow in my aquarium because they dont sting or bother corals or anything.To get rid of them thogh you could take a screwriver and remove them from the rock easily.Thoose sponges in that rock,if you kill them,then it will take years until you have otthers grow.

 

[Fredro84]

Ok. So the sponge is good to have then? I literally have more of that sponge on my rocks than I do coralline algae.

 

[2smokes]

Sponges are verry good to have because they are harmless filter feeders.