Black film on rock and spreading to sand!

[elvis]

I posted this on another post but it seems to be getting worse. A thin black film developed on some of my rock and has now spread to the sand. My lfs said it was a bacteria and to use carbon and up my water changes and it would go away. I've done this and it hasn't changed much. Seems to be spreading.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
E

 

[Scooterman]

Can you siphon it off? Use a turkey baster & blast it free, maybe add a filter sock along with a siphon to suck most of it away. If you can post pictures it may be helpful. Also, we may need to know more about your tank, like flow, lighting etc, the more details the better we can ofer help.

 

[NaH2O]

Sounds like it might be cyanobacteria. Post a little about your set-up. Include age of system, and any water testing results you have in addition to the questions above. Also, are you using RO/DI water or tap? Hopefully, we'll be able to get you in the right direction.

 

[elvis]

Its a 55 with a 20 gallon long sump. The sump contains a small refugium with rubble, macroe and light. Light is on in the sump 24/7. Reef devil skimmer. Sump returns at around 400 gallons per hour if I've done my math right. I subtracted 50gph from the total becouse of the use of a scwd. The tank itself has somewhere around 75 to 80lbs of live rock. I have four small "easy" corals. 3 turbo snails, 20 reef hermit crabs and 30 nass. snails. No fish yet. There are 2 aquaclear ph's in the tank @ 240 per hour. (1 in each corner) I also have a aquaclear 110 on the back with carbon in it. Its supposed to flow at somewhere around 500 gph. Total flow is around 25x I think.

Water:
Amonia 0
Nitrite 0
nitrate <5
Ph 8.3 (seems to be pretty constant a.m. & p.m.)
dkh 10.3
calcium 420
salinity 1.023
Temp 78.1- 78.8
Phosphate < .5
R.O. from day 1
Tank is almost 2 months old.

260 watt pc with lunar led's
Actinic's on at noon
10000k on between 1 and 2 pm (on a timer that I varied the time on and off each day. You know....for those cloudy mornings )
10000k off between 10 and 11p.m.
Actinic's off at 11:30 p.m.
lunars on 11:30 pm till noon.

5 gallon water changes weekly.

I have no algea problem. And everything looks really healthy. My green star polyp is already spreading.

Thats all I can think of.

Thanks

E

 

[Scooterman]

Sounds really nice, sounds like what NIkki said is about right. If you can suck this stuff out I would and continue to let the tank cycle, it is natural for algae to bloom in cycles also as in your cyno. Eventually it will get better, at that time you should be good to Grow!

If you can take us a picture to farther look at what your talking about but I think your on the right path, just give it some time. I'm glad to see your not rushing things along, you didn't mention anything about weather or not you had a SB/DSB/ or BB. Usually sand will also add to the cycling process.

 

[elvis]

SB about 1.5" deep. I used live sand. I fogot to add that I have added 50 or so mysid shrimp. I want to try and get them established before fish. I have pods on top of pods and all kinds of strange creatures that are only out at night. I also have a tiny barnacle looking thing under some shrooms that shoots out a milky white substance with some type of "seed" (for lack of a better discription) every so often.

Where can I learn to post pics on the board and I will do it tonight?

Thanks

E

 

[Scooterman]

At the lower section of a reply (not the quick reply) there is an option to add attachments.

Sounds like at two months this occurrence is normal, when you harvest the cyno, you will be exporting waste, which is a good thing.

 

[snobanker]

This may be dumb for me to ask or even think about but ... are you rinsing the carbon? I have always wondered what would happen if you didn't.....wouldnt the carbon "dust" settle on the rocks and stuff? Just a thought that went through my head.

 

[elvis]

Yup. I rinse it in RO until no dust is coming out at all. I'm probably freaking out over nothing. Just want to do it right. I have kept fish only saltwater for 8 years but this is my first attempt at a reef.

Does anyone have any idea what the thing shooting out of the shrooms might be?

As far as the pics go......Do I need to host them to an internet site first? If so, where can I do this?

Thanks

E

 

[snobanker]

I gotta imagine its a cyano bloom, as stated above then. Judging by your good water params I'll bet siphoning it off and waiting a little and it'll clear up. I remember when I got my diatom bloom after starting my tank, I almost went through the roof.... lol......then it went away...plus I put in a clean up crew.

 

[Scooterman]

You can up-load directly from your computer. If your intrested, Reef Frontiers offers web space, e-mail addresses & other features rather cheap, just a thought. I think you will be ok, not sure about the shroons, maybe Nikki wil chime in.

 

[NaH2O]

To post photos, you can either upload them to your gallery in the Members Photo Gallery section (link at the top of the page), then link to them. OR, if you click on Add Reply near the bottom of the page, it will take you to a different screen. From there, you type your post in the message box, then scroll down to "Additional Options", and where it says "Attach Files", you click on "manage attachments". it will pop up a screen where you browse your computer to get the pic you are looking for. There is a size limit, so be sure you resize the pic if needed.

OK - I've been thinking about the shroom thing from your previous post. You had stated previously that it lets something out that spreads on the sand and reels it in? Let me know if that isn't correct. At first I was thinking Vermetid snail....they are small tubes, and will release a "spider web" looking thing....then reel it in to feed. However, the "seeds" you are describing sounds like eggs. If it corresponds with a milky looking substance, then you probably have something that is trying to reproduce. I'm not very familiar with barnacles, but if it is a small clam, they will reproduce like described. Let me toss up a few pics. The first is a vermetid snail...this pic is of a very small one, and kind of blurry...sorry for that. You can see in the picture a mucous web coming out:

And the second picture is just an example of what eggs look like coming out of a snail. Let me know what you think:

 

[elvis]

O.K. I'm a computer moron. How do you resize a pic?

I have a few of this thing but the files too large.

 

[Scooterman]

Reducing the size &reducing the quality, which in turn both will reduce the file size. You will be required to have some program on your computer that can do this. I usually resize & reduce the photo and save it as another name, this will preserve the original & let you adjust the renamed file so you can post it. Their may be other ways of doing this but this is how I do it, you may be allowed to post larger files in your gallery like Nikki said, I think you can but I haven't tried yet.

 

[elvis]

I can't figure it out. Oh well I'll keep trying.

You had stated previously that it lets something out that spreads on the sand and reels it in?

I did notice that the "strings" that are spread on the sand and drug back with sand stuck to it are building a tube out of the pieces of sand. I have a pic of it but do to my tremendous computer skills I can't figure out how to resize so I can post it. This is happening on four different places on the rock that the shrooms are attached to. Its not the snails that nikki posted. Its not a web but a single line coming out and drug across the sand. It seems as though these are the same places that are shooting the milky substance.

 

[wrightme43]

If you look in search there is a thread about posting photos. It has the links to free programs to download to resize your photos. I use iframview. It works great for me. HTH Steve

 

[NaH2O]

Here is a link to the thread Steve was referring to. There are a couple of links to free downloads to resize images. Hope this helps: How to post pics on Reef Frontiers

Hmmmm.....it might be something like a terellbid polychaete. Check out these articles: Spaghetti worms utilize tentacles in amazing ways. Also here: Spaghetti and Hair Worms....What's in a Name? - scroll down to Figure 2. And this quote

Typically, the worms will shed either eggs or sperm into the water column, and after a short perioda juvenile worm will settle and attach itself to the substrate.

from this link: The annelids: Their Biology

 

[snobanker]

Yes it sounds like spaghetti worms to me too...I have a bunch

 

[elvis]

Bingo! They look like figure 2 in the second article. Not as many tentacles but thats what they look like. They are forming a tube with the sand. One of the tubes is about a 1/4" long. Maybe the tube is being formed to get out from under neath the shrooms?? I guess they are trying to reproduce when they release the substance into the water. I hope this is a good thing.

Thanks for the help! Now if I can figure out the picture resizing and get rid of the blackish film I'll be happy! (for now )

E

 

[Beeba]

I developed a cyano problem just like what elvis described in the first few months of my tank being up. After listening to everyone here I syphoned it off every day or two and stopped micromanaging my tank. It eventually cycled through and I haven't seen any since. Now if only the hair algae problem was as easy to get rid of.