Green Slime

[olsenjb]

I recently converted my 55 gallon from a cichlid tank to a reef. I was given a bunch of old dead "live rock" (i.e. nothing growing on them, just bleached out coral skeleton), which I placed in my tank along with about 25 pounds of fresh live rock. I have a plenum, as well as two external power filters and 4 powerheads circulating the water. I run a seaclone protein skimmer. I have 4 x 65W power compacts (2 8800K and 2 7100K Actinic) which I run for apprx. 10 hours per day. Once the tank was set up, I began to let it cycle. First came the brown algae bloom, which my cleaner crew mowed down. Then the green hair algae, which my cleaning crew also made short work of. Now, I have a green slime growing mainly on the old bleached rocks which my cleaning crew seems to do nothing with. Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrites are all at 0, and I tested my phosphates last night and they were under 0.2. I rarely feed. I don't think I have dropped any food in for about 5 days now. I tried to pull out a couple of the rocks and scrub them, but the rock is so pourous, I couldn't brush off the green. Is this just a stage? Will it eventually die off? Will it hurt the mushrooms and polyps in the tank? Will it prevent the coralline algae from spreading onto the old rock? Thanks for all your input. My tank inhabitants include:
35 blue leg hermits
25 nassarius snails
30 astrea snails
1 emerald crab
2 camel back shrimp
1 Dominoe Damsel
1 Yellow-Tailed Damsel
4 Various Small Mushroom Rocks
1 Small Green Star Polyp Rock

 

[ruaround]

Take the rocks (the "dead" ones) out and in a bucket give them a salt water bath... Use a toothbrush to get the slime off of the rocks.

 

[olsenjb]

Yeah, unfortunately I tried that, and like I said, it won't scrub off due to the pourosity of the rock. I pulled a couple out that were easy to get to without tearing down the whole tank and tried it. It just doesn't seem to want to scrub off. I can deal with how it looks as long as it is just a phase and will eventually die off.

 

[ruaround]

Hmmm..im stumped...I used some "dead" rock that was once alive and had the same prob...It came right off with a little elbow grease, patience and a toothbrush. I didnt give it time to see what would happen if I left it alone, I thought it was rather unsightly...

 

[olsenjb]

I am a bit stumped myself. Perhaps the toothbrush I used had too soft of bristles. I took a few of the dead pieces that I could, and turned them upside down since this slime wasn't on the bottom of them. Clearly whatever it is, it needs light to grow...which I figured was the case. Any idea what type of algae this is, and what is the cause?

 

[byrself]

i think it will eventually go away. sure seems kinda strange though. that dead coral seems fishy to me. is it all white? make sure it isn't painted. the green will interfere with your coralline for a while, but it shouldn't really hurt anything in your tank. just keep an eye on your corals.
might have something to do with it being an old freshwater tank. are you using the old substrate? just a guess at best. i've seen green slime in freshwater tanks. i don't know though. could try some phoszorb anyway, just a stab in the dark. for seven bucks, it might be worth a try. how long has your tank been this way? how long since you added all the rock?

 

[olsenjb]

The dead rock is actually dead live rock. It came out of my brother's once flourishing reef, which crashed and burned and ended up in a storage shed for about 2 years, but that's another story. Anyway, I am using about 60 pounds of aragonite crushed coral, which was seeded with about 12 pounds of Arag-Alive for my substrate. The green slime has been slowly getting worse over about the last 7-10 days. The tank has only been running for a little over a month, and the rock, both dead and alive, has been in it since the beginning. I never would have started putting corals is yet, but I was offered them for free from a friend who was moving, so I had to jump on them whether the tank was ready or not. I figured if they didn't make it, oh well, they were free. But that being said, I don't want to lose them either.

 

[ruaround]

Its probably cyanobacteria...check this <a href="http://wetwebmedia.com/bluegralgae.htm" target="_blank">web page</a> out

 

[susiepan]

Just a thought, how long are you leaving your lights on for each day??
~Susie

 

[olsenjb]

Actinics-11 hours, 8800K-10 hours. Also, I have been performing apprx. 10% water changes weekly using RO/DI water hoping it would slow it down.

 

[byrself]

that article mentioned alot of things. easy answer i get from it and the fact your tank is a month old is that it's the bga, or similar. your tank just needs to mature. all the parameters you described seem okay. i don't see probs from anything you've done. i just think your tank needs to finish "curing".

 

[bristleworms]

A possible source of the problem could come from the rocks being previously live. After your brother's tank crashed, the rocks were dried out, and whatever was in them died. If the rocks weren't bleached in the mean time, whatever died in those rocks could now be decaying. This would provide high nitrates ect. right at the surface level of the rock causing algae to grow. Not sure why it's slime however. You may want to possibly add some decorative macroalgae to the tank, to absorb free nutrients in the water so the slime can't.

 

[olsenjb]

Decorative Macroalgae? I'm afraid I'm not sure what that is, but what you say makes sense.

 

[bristleworms]

Unfortunatly I'm not too familiar with names of macroalgae available, however, I'm just refering to types that may look better than others. (shaving brush(?) of something like that)

 

[byrself]

i thought you said your nitrates were at zero? if it was my tank i would take out that dead coral. no use risking your tanks health on that stuff. just get some more live rock. down the road you'll be able to have some live coral (much cooler imo)

 

[ruaround]

macroalgae...such as caulepra, or bubble algae...

 

[olsenjb]

That is what I was told when I had my water tested at the LFS. I need to get my own test kit, but they told me my ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites were all at 0. I do have a phosphate kit, so that I did test myself, and it was less than 0.2.

 

[olsenjb]

Well, I have got to get to bed. I don't know what times it is in your parts of the world, but it is late here in Utah. By the looks of your locations, it is probably even later where you are. Thanks again for all your suggestions and help. Please continue to post any suggestions you have as I will check back first thing tomorrow morning. One final parting thought, would the addition of activated carbon in my power filter do any good? I have heard both pros/cons on the subject. What do you think?

 

[broomer5]

I've had this stuff before.
It sounds like the very tough bright greenish algae I've yet to be able to identify.
I would suggest looking at ways to reduce your phosphate level.
Less than .02 mg/l is desirable.
.20 is considered high and that along with leaving the lights on too long will allow the green stuff to grow rapidly.
Once I reduced my phosphate sources - this stuff for the most part seemed to eventually die off - although I still see spots of it crop up occasionally.
The hard part is that phosphates get "trapped" in the algae - and if not removed and allowed to die off - just add the phosphates back into the tank.
I know tearing down the tank's rockwork to scrub this stuff off can be a pain, but is about the only natural way to get rid of it.
The cleanup crews didn't seem to care too much for this stuff in my tank.
Other option - let the tank mature some more and watch.
If it get's better - cool.
If not - maybe try scrubbing it off this old rock, or just remove these pieces entirely - exporting the algae with the old rock, and toss in the trashcan.

 

[finland]

This sounds like the algae I had in my tank. I tried to scrub it off with a brush and it doesn't come off. Like a green spray paint. Now it seems to be going away. I suggest just giving it time and keep your parameters low. If it is the same as my tank, it goes away.