questions for the pros! with picts!

loopy101

loopy101

Member
not sure where to start! My sister picked me up some live rock around a month ago now and one piece has what i thought to just be a skeliton of some type of coral, well in the last week there are these dark purplish hairs that come out of it through out the day when the lights are on.
picture one is in the morning and picture two is after acouple hours of the lights on. is this good or bad? and any thoughts what it might be?
OK picture 3 is of something i have growing under some live rock. not sure if its just coraline algea growing or if it might be something else??? any thoughts?
OK picture 4 looks to be some type of eggs.. as far as i know its been there for a week or so. and thoughts??
any thoughts or opions would be great!!!!
and thank you for all your help thoughts and opions!!!!



 
perfectdark

perfectdark

Active Member
I have no idea about pic 4 my guess is an encrusting type of sponge, but I wouldnt rule out eggs of some type. I am pretty certain pic 3 is a type of sponge. And pics one and two look like cyano bacteria to me. A full tank shot would help, and what do you have for live stock in the tank?
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
i see the pics
1 and 2 looks like a type of cyano that is building up on the dead coral. this is just a nuissance algae, usually defeated with upping the tank flow and lowering nutrients and light time. what are your params, how much flow running?
3 i have no clue, some type of algae / sponge , i wouldnt worry
4 most likely snail eggs, i am assuming you have snails?
 
loopy101

loopy101

Member
yes has snails thats what i was kind assuming they are snail eggs but thought i would ask! time will tell i suppose!
and as far as picture one and two the hairs only come out during the lighting cycle nor is there really a mat like cynao usually has/? when the lights are off i have taking a flashlight and look many times and it seems to go into hiding. also it is pretty much right in front of a power head. so i am clueless!
as far as a bio load i have 1 firefishgolbie, 1 lawnmower blenny, 2 little nemos,and a scopas tang in a 55 gal tank. sis picked up the tang so hopfully i will have a bigger tank up and running soon for him!!
have around 5 hermit crabs,3 turbo snails and around 10 nass snails,and a bag of cheato soaking at the top in a net waiting for me to finish the sump..
i will check the paras tonight and post my findings
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
can you blow it off with a turkey baster? what powerhead? what do you think your overall GPH turnover is?
as for the eggs most likely time will not tell. most eggs only last a few days before being eaten. if the eggs are not eaten, then the hatchlings / fry make for great fresh fish / coral food.
 
loopy101

loopy101

Member
the power head is a rio 1700 i have it split and running intot he tank in two different spots and i figure about 300 gph is blowing around it not directly on it but awefully close! and it didnt start showing up until i added extra flow intot he tank. i had a problem with cynao couple weeks ago that is why i put the extra flow into the tank in the first place but that has pretty well been cleaned up now. but i will see what i can do for getting the water tested this evening! and thanks for your help so far!!!
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
so your rio 1700 is not a powerhead (pump in the tank just for circulation) but a sump return pump? how far is the water travelling vertically? 5' ?
is that the only source of water flow in the tank?
here is what i found about the rio 1700
Flowrate Chart:
Head Height______GPH
0'_______________625
1'_______________605
4'_______________325
6' ________________75
so figure closer to 250GPH total, because of friction with the split...
that would be ~125 GPH from each outlet, which is not so strong at all.
if that is the only flow in your tank, then you are only at about 5X turn over which is the problem. a healthy tank should be at least at 10x to fight off cyano and detritus build up IMO. the more the merrier. my tank for example is estimated at 87X, but that is set up to care for SPS corals which demand more flow.
 
loopy101

loopy101

Member
right now the rio is being used as a power head ,i have it t'ed off the main spout with one side of it blowing behind the rocks in a upward direction and the other is blowing in front of the live rock sloped down but not steep enough to creat a sand storm.. the one side blowing upwards is blowing around that dead coral piece(which by the way can anyone tell what kind of coral it was?) i do agree i need more flow! and will be planning on purchasing one.i also will need to get a larger pump for a return from the sump. will be putting the sump together tonight/tomorrow going to pick up the glass for it in a few minutes! and hopefully i will remember to get some batteries so i can take a picture to show you how the rio is set up for the time being.
what kind of power heads would you suggest? i know in this hobby ya get what you pay for!!! but unfortintally i havent made my millions yet! lol
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
the coral looks like it was a porites, or some other similar encrusting SPS. common on LR.
ok, yea a picture is worth a 1000 words in this hobby, i got into the habbit of taking pics of everything and then asking questions with them to save time, becuase we will ask you for them 90% of the time.
this hobby is not necessarily "you get what you pay for" there are many great ways to cut a lot of expensive corners and still have an amazing tank. for example buying mostly base rock, and only putting a few pounds of LR on top to seed it, and voila hundreds upon hundreds of cash saved on rock. for flow, i have a built a closed loop system and also added 4 maxijets with the propeller mods (see my upgrade thread in the DiY). the modded MJs probably cost about 40bucks and you end up with 2000-2500 GPH each.
 
loopy101

loopy101

Member
i now agree it is cynao stuff on the dead coral.... grrrr thought i had it all gone! i guess it just seemed strange to me that it would retreat at night but last night it didnt retreat.. but anyway i will follow the steps i read in another thread again and see what i can do to get it gone again! i havent had a chance to check my paras due to the fact had a wake and funeral and work hasnt left me with much time.
thanks for all your help saltnoob!!! i do have a question for you though .how well do you fish handle that much flow? for the time being i am just going to stick with my fish and soft corals.until i can upgrade my lights then i might get into sps down the road. i was looking at the maxi jet power heads but wasnt to sure if they were any good so i am glad you suggested them! i will order 2 of them and i think the upgrade kits are on sale to right now so i will try 2 and see if that helps and go from there!!! thanks again for all your help!!!
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
no problem. fish handle the flow just fine, just think how much power the ocean can produce. sometimes they even go surfing in the current for exercise / fun
 
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