What is this stuff, is it bad??

Ryan Reefer

New member
Hey all - :beer: cheers...

I haven't been doing this all that long, my water seems fine. It's all testing within acceptable parameteres, but I've got these algae like growths on some of my rocks, not everywhere....just in certain places. Some's really dark maroon, and some's the manliest shade of pink I've ever seen.

I'm posting some pics - they're both in this shot. One on the top left, on in the middle to lower right, the darker one's kinda tough to see - but its purple. can any one tell me what this stuff is, or more importantly - is it bad for my tank??
 

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Definitely cyano on the red stuff. It will often turn to a brown, algae-like life that can really look like crap

Get as much out as you can, either through siphoning or, better yet if you have $35, a BucketMax. They sell them at Lowes for $29 and get the micro tool kit for it. It snaps on the lid of a 5g bucket and works like a mini shop vac. There's a little brush attachment that works great on cyano growth and general cleaning overall. I use it every other week to do my water changes to clean any spots up that need attention

There are chems out there to take cyano out but I'd worry about the aiptasia more for now. Up your water changes, remove all you can, cut your nutrients and the cyano will run its course
 
Tip left is sponge, bottom right is cyano. And just below the cyano (on the left) is an Aiptasia pest anemone.

Siphon out the cyano, kalk the Aiptasia and enjoy the sponge.

Kevin
 
OK - so keep the manly colored pink one - kill the dark maroon one. Got it.

Yeah - I know about the aptasia - those little b#stards drive me crazy, I had none that I knew of, then I left for a week on a business trip and came back to my tank looking like an aptasia farm. There was too many to kill in one shot without traumatizing my tank so I've been killing them off slowly, I'm down about 75% at this point, have another week or two to go before I think the combination of kalk treatment and water changes will have them all gone. At this point though I'm afraid they're just there to stay, I don't know if I can kill off all the spores - I might have to pull all my LR, nuke em and start into a second tank slowly. Fortunately - I have one.

Any other tips on ridding an aptasia infestation before I go to drastic measures??
 
I had a mushroom rock I bought that had a couple of aiptasia on it and my peppermint shrimp took care of them. Just a thought.
 
I'd need the Godzilla of all peppermint shrimp I think.

Was thinking about ordering about 5 Bergher's nudibranches, give them a couple weeks and see what happens.
 
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