Our tank's biology up close

Finally got the mystery black mat uploaded

Sliced off chunk plus pipette pulled.

3c854433911cd74d3fb3d3ccedcbf75d.jpg
 
I started off with the chunk and really had to push the exposure up to get light through it and so much so you'll see some bounce back glare in some of the images. And any spot that actually allowed some light through some what decently will be very bright white and over exposed by a lot.


Thick full of cyano and some detritus. See some common cyano I've seen, some spirulina, and some of what I think are cyano but haven't seen in my tank yet either. Some algae packed in too. Didn't see sponge or anything like it. From what I saw its all bacteria tightly packed in and some detritus and algae "swallowed" up into the mass. Bacteria of various types and sizes from the very small creating bacterial films to the large cyano.

Black_Mat_Sample01-0002 by Jason, on Flickr

Black_Mat_Sample01-0003 by Jason, on Flickr

Black_Mat_Sample01-0004 by Jason, on Flickr

Black_Mat_Sample01-0005 by Jason, on Flickr

Black_Mat_Sample01-0006 by Jason, on Flickr

Black_Mat_Sample01-0007 by Jason, on Flickr

Black_Mat_Sample01-0008 by Jason, on Flickr

Black_Mat_Sample01-0009 by Jason, on Flickr

Black_Mat_Sample01-0010 by Jason, on Flickr
 
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So each "hair" is basically one long visible bacterial chain... one long bacteria holding on (how?) to another bacteria ?

Could the smaller bacteria create more he "forest floor" matting and the longer ones be the hair?

Are they all cyano or different kinds?

Chemiclean disperses it temporarily so I knew cyano was in there but I expected it to be a "matrix" that grew under the hair.

Bacteria = no macro predators that'll eat it. :(
My urchins will go there as a last resort but with all the coralline, they don't bother any more.

I assume that the easiest solution is local application of peroxide combined with an antibiotic and chemiclean.

I have no cyano films anywhere in the tank and no algae except at the coral tips where no fish, snail or crab can reach. So it's not nutrient loading (no measurable N or P due to the monster ATS).

Since it grows by encrusting the high light & flow areas, I'm assuming it must be heavily photosynthetic.. but I would expect those zones to be colonized by regular old green hair. Maybe my rabbit is too efficient at eliminating anything green so I've created an artificial ecological space for this bacteria (that my rabbit won't eat).
 
So the wide strands are cyano, Jason what would you call the thin strands? Bacterial strings?
When I over-carbon-dose my tank produces similar much thinner than cyano strings, so I'm assuming bacterial. These strings can be way stronger than cyano, so bacterial glue or whatever sort we're talking about shouldn't be underestimated.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Strings of microbes are a fairly common occurrence. I think this example looks like others I've seen in the past.
 
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