Brown Covered Liverock

[keithboylan]

The liverock in my tank have been covered in a brown smear how can I tell if its brown smear alge, diatoms or caynobacteria my water in the tank has well matured as its 3 years running parameters are good nitrate 0 phosphate 0 alkalinity 9 calcium 450 magnesium 1400 ph 8.2 salinity 1.026 all results were from salifert tests by me and LFS can I ID this and solutions for getting rid of it one piece of montipora in tank is doing just fine as well as several softies and zoans

 

[nanocubeking]

Take some pics if you can. Its probably diatoms thought.

 

[jeasko]

more likely to be caynobacteria if the tank has been running for a while, but pics would help identify it

 

[nanocubeking]

Yeah if the tank has been up for a while i'd say cyano too.

 

[keithboylan]

Here are some pics note how the corals are this is as close I can focus its not as bad as it was but still not going any suggestions

 

[1entra]

Is that bubbles its producing? It actually looks like cyano...

 

[keithboylan]

It was producing bubbles what you see in pic 3 is what is left of some star polyps

 

[nanocubeking]

Yeah thats quite abit. The only thing I could recommend is water changes and siphon out the algae at the same time.

 

[keithboylan]

I dont believe that this is cayno as I was reading in Julian Sprung book Algae that cayno is slow at producing and this stuff in my tank if removed will over night cover everything again

 

[jeasko]

that does seem fast but i guess under the right conditions cyanobacteria will grow at a rapid rate, there is some info on this stuff in the stickies at the top of this section that may help.

 

[SkiFletch]

I dont believe that this is cayno as I was reading in Julian Sprung book Algae that cayno is slow at producing and this stuff in my tank if removed will over night cover everything again

No offense to a well-renowned aquarist/conservationist, but Mr. Sprung clearly never saw my first cyano outbreak Stuff came back every day, drove me crazy

 

[keithboylan]

How did you solve the problem i currently have turned off my lights in the sump and within 48 hours it had gone tried same in main tank but no luck so today i turned off the main tank lights and will leave a while longer had this before and left lights off for nearly 2 months but that time i had no softies, clams or sps any one know how long light loving creatures would survive with lights off

 

[SkiFletch]

3 days is a good time frame for a blackout with corals in the tank