Has anyone seen this before?

mr salty

mr salty

New Member
I have a 75 reef setup almost three years now. About 3 months ago this gray soot started covering everything!
At first i just cleaned it off but now its back in like two days!
If you touch it it causes a mini cloud of gray brown dust

If anyone can tell me what this is it would greatly appreciated!!
And thank you for your time!


 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
I had something kinda similar...and was told it was detrius....apparently it is not getting filtered out
ALTHO....I have nowhere near as much as you do
I used a turkey baster and siphoned what I could get to.
You may need to check your flow and clean up crew
 
speg

speg

Active Member
What's some of the more recent additions to the tank?
That stuff looks like a pain :p
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
I've also had some similar looking stuff and just chaulked it up to being algae and cleaned it up. Sometimes it came back pretty fast too.
 
ibanez

ibanez

Member
The 90 gallon I just purchased is covered in what looks like this. What I have heard before, is that it is a really really nasty diatom bloom. It just flakes off and floats around the tank in large chunks. The rock looks like it is covered in hair but it is really soft and almost the consitency of cyano bacteria. Here is a picture of mine, I just filled the tank with water yesterday and today. I am going to scrub it off with a brush and stir it up in the water column and keep it stirred up and collect it in a filter sock in my sump. I know it isn't ditritus in this tank and I am pretty sure it is different than what you had in your tank Meowzer because I have that in my 10 gallon and it is different than this. The guy who I bought this from never used anything but tap water, which I imagine had a really really nasty amount of silicates in it for this stuff to thrive. Do you use R/O water? If so maybe you need a filter change.

 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
Definately not diatoms. Forams is one of the groups that has a crazy amount of appearances amongst them.
Of course I can't say for sure from that pic, but that's what mine looked like. When I looked at them closely I could see the little white whispies.
 
ibanez

ibanez

Member
Yes, I have those too in my colony of green star polyps, and that is definately not what is in my tank. I am not sure about the op, but theres looks like mine to me.
 
mr salty

mr salty

New Member
Yes I am up for a filter change on all three stages of the RO And membrane! Thanks at least I can start somewhere to git rid of it
And thanks everybody for your input, I still consider this tread open if anyone else has any ideas
 
mr salty

mr salty

New Member
I'd just to thank IbanEz for his input!... I have been a reefer for about twelve years off and on And I never thought about the RO filters causing this Problem
(Smacks Forehead). I'm still not sure what it is ! but since I overhauled My RO unit It has stopped spreading and I'm able to siphon it out with my water changes.

Good Call And Thanks Again!
 
don1234

don1234

Member
Dirt....algae....I had some forming on several live rocks....I readjusted the flow on a few of them and it went away....then I I added a few more blue legged and another emeral crab....and that took care of it. Can't really get the snails to attack it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top