cyano perhaps?

[denny80688]

I have a few spots of purple/red slimyness on the tank walls. Nothing big maybe silver dollar sized but is this the precursor of a big mess about to happen?
use only RO water for everything and my current readings are
amonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 30
Ph - 8.4
I did recently turn off my one powerhead because theres no sponge on it and I was afraid my chromis might get sucked into it. I have 2 others running however and my return pump gives me lots of surface turbulance.
thanks

 

[effloresce]

do you use Crushed coral? you trates level is high. dotn worry about the fish they are smart not to get sucked in, but they might if they are dieing or very sick.

 

[denny80688]

I lost one chromis to the PH thats what made me shut it down. All of the fish look great. Im using LS substrate and there is none of the stuff on the LR or LS just on the glass and a little on the overflows.

 

[effloresce]

what is your bioload? how much do you feed, what do you feed?

 

[denny80688]

1 perc 2", 5 chromis 1" and 1 hippo tang 1.5". Feed frozen brine 1 cube every day and some seaweed stuff for the hippo

 

[effloresce]

try feeding evryother,t hat might be your source of trates
what do you have for filtration?
sump, skimmer, fuge, carbon, how much LR

 

[denny80688]

sump with wet/dry and auquaclear skimmer which I am not thrilled with. currently 50lb of LR and looking to add more soon
Dennis

 

[bigarn]

Have you touched the spots? Is it actually slimey or flakey?
If it's flakey, it's coralline algae.

 

[denny80688]

nah didnt touch them yet but they look kind of slimy... and my hippo tang seems to like to lick at them... :notsure: I tested my trates again this morning after a water change on saturday and I am still showing like 30. Gonna build a fuge I think to help with it. and do another water change this week.. So far I have been doing between 10 and 15% every 2 weeks. is that enough? The trates have been steady at 30 for about 2 months

 

[effloresce]

well you need more live rock, you want nearly 1 pound per gallon of porus rock (including base rock), i have 100+ pounds of live rock in my tank. the bacteria in the rocks can reduce the trates greatly that seems to be your problem.

 

[effloresce]

also do you have bioballs in yoru wet/dry?

 

[denny80688]

yes bioballs in the wet/dry and including base rock I then have 100lb of rock. 50lb live 50lb base.

 

[effloresce]

ahh i see god set up, in that case your biobalss are the problem, with that much live rock, bioballs "sie" and start to trap nitrates, i would slowly take them out, like a hand full a day, and maybe mod the wet/dry to make it a fuge or sump.